For more than 10 years, UNEP has sought to identify and draw attention to emerging issues of environmental concern. The UNEP Frontiers’ report continues to advances this work, signaling environmental issues and solutions for effective and timely responses. Some issues may be local, relatively small-scale issues today, with a potential to become an issue of regional or global concern if not addressed early.
What emerging issues are presented in the Frontiers’ 2017 report?
A per chapter breakdown of this report is available on the right column of this page. To view this report in other UN languages, please click on "Languages" on top right of header
Growing antibiotic resistance is emerging as one of the biggest global public health concerns of the twenty-first century. While studies have linked the intensive and often unnecessary administration of antibiotics over recent decades to increasing resistance, the role of the environment in the emergence and spread of resistance has received little attention.
Each year, an estimated two billion tonnes of dust is raised into the atmosphere. According to the report, Impacts of Sand and Dust Storms on Oceans: A Scientific Environmental Assessment for Policy Makers, even the smallest elements can have substantive effects on ecosystem functioning – and on the Earth system, at large.
Marine plastic pollution is ubiquitous and dangerous to the health of our marine environments. It has been found that plastic pollution in marine ecosystems reduce ecosystem services by up to USD 2,500 billion per year!
