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The Pacific Islands are hard-hit by the economic, social, and environmental costs of climate change. Despite the region’s less than 0.02 per cent contribution to the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions, Pacific Island countries are at the frontline of the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.

A newly launched Climate Transparency Platform offers a one-stop shop to track countries’ latest reported progress towards global carbon reduction goals, providing a key source of information for governments, civil society, and academia on the road to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’s COP28 summit in Dubai.

    An innovative partnership is advancing a simple and effective solution to clearing plastic waste from waterways and turning it into a key element of a circular economy.

During the GEF Assembly, Canada and the United Kingdom announced contributions to the new Global Biodiversity Framework Fund, created to ramp up investment in nature restoration and renewal.

VANCOUVER – In good news for nature in a challenging moment, representatives of 185 countries agreed at the Global Environment Facility’s Seventh Assembly in Canada to launch an innovative new fund for biodiversity that will attract funding from governments, philanthropy, and the private sector.

The rhythmic sound of voices singing in harmony floats across Mozambique’s Limpopo River as several women stand ankle deep in the sticky mud along its banks.

In a well-rehearsed routine, one woman scoops up sediment with a hoe while another buries a fragile mangrove sapling in the void.

The joyous songs of the women obscure the difficulty of their job.

The monsoon season, which runs from June through September, has become a nervous time for the people of Nepal.

The climate crisis has supercharged the fallout from the annual rains, which are triggering an increasing number of floods and landslides, disasters that are especially devastating in a nation defined by its vertigo-inducing slopes.

Today is the sixth anniversary of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, a landmark global agreement to protect people and the environment from the toxic effects of mercury. To mark the occasion, UNEP is looking back at a story originally published in February about the campaign to end the use of mercury in small-scale gold mining.

Alfredo Somebang is an elder of the Pidlisan Indigenous tribe, which is part of the collective tribe of Igorot, or "people of the mountains," in the Philippines' Sagada region. He works as a gold miner as well as a farmer to support his family of eight. Small-scale gold mining is an increasingly important part of this region’s economy, and for the past two years, the planetGOLD Philippines project has worked with Alfredo and other miners to design a mercury-free gold processing plant that is fully accepted and approved by all local Indigenous communities.

It was an ecological time bomb.

In mid-2022, a toxic algal bloom began to quickly spread through the Oder River, which in part straddles the border between Germany and Poland.

This quarter's

Two new facilities nearing completion in Mongolia will allow small-scale gold miners to use a centralized, professional processing service that is mercury-free, rather than doing the gold processing themselves in secret using mercury.

Visit both new mercury-free facilities in this episode of planetGOLD's #DispatchesFromTheField video series.

Beneath the picturesque turquoise waters of Trinidad and Tobago, plastic pollution is wreaking havoc on marine ecosystems.

15 countries have united behind the GEF-funded Plastics Integrated Program to transition to a circular economy in the food and beverage sector and combat plastic pollution from single-use plastic packaging

$107-million program is the largest global investment in tackling plastic pollution to date

Brasilia, 26 June 2023 – The world’s largest funder of environmental action has announced its backing for over $321 million in UN Environment Programme initiatives to tackle the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity and waste and pollution. 

As the world experiences the triple crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, Canada continues to show leadership in advancing environmental action at home and around the world by bringing diverse partners together to find solutions for a healthy planet.

"Plastic kills, and the damages of plastic pollution have no borders. We cannot beat plastic pollution if we don’t tackle climate change, environmental loss and food crises at the same time.” 

The ISLANDS Programme has launched a new app to turn the tide on plastic pollution

Plastic waste harms human health and the environment, releasing toxic persistent organic pollutants if improperly managed

The Tide Turners app will equip over 100,000 young people around the world with youth-focused community-based solutions to stop plastic waste

Today, around 1 million species already face extinction, many within decades, unless urgent action is taken.

In 2022, the historic Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework identified five main drivers of ecosystem degradation: changes in land and sea use, direct exploitation of organisms, climate change, the invasion of alien species and pollution.

For centuries, human beings have endangered body and mind in pursuit of the toxic fallacy that pale skin represents the highest form of beauty.

West Africa’s six Volta River Basin countries launch initiative to reduce socioeconomic pressures on the basin's natural resources $7-million project aims to reverse ecosystem and water resource degradation in one of Africa’s fastest-growing regions Currently home to 29 million people, the population of the Volta River Basin is expected to top 68 million by 2046

Senegal, Thailand and Uruguay have joined forces to reduce the environmental and health impacts of the dental industry Mercury is a key component of dental amalgam, posing significant risks to human and environmental health when improperly handled and disposed of $13-million initiative will support a holistic approach to accelerate the phase down of dental amalgam use and improve the disposal of mercury-containing waste

UNEP joins the international conservation community in mourning the passing of our friend and colleague Ziad Samaha.

Côte d'Ivoire acts to reduce mercury pollution from its artisanal gold mining sector Over half a ton of mercury is used by Côte d'Ivoire’s miners annually $17-million initiative will support access to markets, finance and the uptake of mercury-free technologies by miners

Abidjan, 25th April 2023 – The Ivorian Government has taken decisive action to protect the nation’s health and environment today, launching a $17-million project to reduce the use of mercury in its artisanal gold mining sector.

In 2020, nearly half of the world's population was at risk of malaria.

The disease is preventable and curable. However, in areas with limited vector control, the risk remains significant.

Ahead of World Malaria Day, we sat down with Jitendra Sharma from the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Chemicals and Waste Unit to discuss how UNEP is helping countries tackle the disease.

Malaria is typically understood as a public health issue. How does it fall under your remit?

19 April 2023, Juba – The Government of South Sudan has launched a major USD 9 million-initiative to help communities adapt to climate change by strengthening climate early warning systems and restoring the country’s precious ecosystems in 2 of the 10 states.