Background
This document provides a road map for the coal mine methane (CMM) science studies coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme’s International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO). It summarizes and builds upon an IMEO commissioned literature review report (Phase 1) entitled “Coal Mine Methane Emissions: Sources, Mitigation Potential, Monitoring and Emissions Quantification” written by Durucan et al. (2022). After introducing our current understanding of CMM emissions we present a road map for CMM field measurement studies (Phase 2). This road map is set by a series of questions designed to assess our current understanding of global CMM emissions to the atmosphere, provide information to fill knowledge gaps, improve reporting of emissions, and facilitate mitigation of methane emissions from specific CMM sources. We provide further details for one on-going CMM science field measurement study being performed in Poland to clarify the goals of this road map. Fin
Intergovernmental negotiating committee (INC) to develop a legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment.
In February 2022, at the resumed fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5.2), a historic resolution (5/14) was adopted to develop a legally binding instrument on plastic pollution with the ambition to complete the negotiations by end of 2024.
The instrument is to be based on a comprehensive approach that addresses the full life cycle of plastic. The INC will consider how to promote sustainable production and consumption of plastics from product design to environmentally sound waste management through resource efficiency and circular economy approaches.
The rapidly increasing levels of plastic pollution represent a serious global environmental issue that negatively impacts the environmental, social, economic and health dimensions of sustainable development. Under a business-as-usual scenario and in the absence of nece
International Day of Clean Air for blue skies, was designated 7 September by the United Nations General Assembly in 2019.
This follows the international community’s increasing interest in clean air and emphasises the need to make further efforts to improve air quality to protect human health.
Often, you can’t see air pollution, but it is everywhere. Air pollution causes approximately 7 million premature deaths annually, making it the single greatest environmental risk to human health and one of the main avoidable causes of death and disease globally. A UNEP report found that one in five premature deaths in the Western Balkans was down due to pollution, but air pollution knows no national borders. A study suggests that pollution in China could be increasing the strength of cyclones forming over the Pacific Ocean and even spreading contaminates into the western states of the United States.
Air pollution disproportionately affects children and the elderly, and has a nega
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Values Assessment responds to the need to support decision-makers in understanding and accounting for the wide range of nature’s values in policy decisions to address the current biodiversity crisis and to achieve Sustainable Development Goals.
Approved by representatives of the 139 Member States of IPBES in July 2022, the Assessment Report on Diverse Values and Valuation of Nature finds that there is a dominant global focus on short-term profits and economic growth, often excluding the consideration of multiple values of nature in policy decisions.