It presents an update on the progress on the implementation of the Pollution Action Plan adopted at UNEA-4 in resolution 4/21, including some highlights in implementing the specific deliverables identified in the Plan. The Plan aims to build synergies across the work of UNEP and to provide the glue across …
the agenda for the 9th Meeting of Parties to the Protocol (mop-9) included measures to ensure compliance, curb smuggling of cfc s, and phase out hcfc s, methyl bromide, methyl chloroform, carbon tetrachloride and other cfc substitutes with a high ozone depleting potential (odp). A number of decisions were taken …
the Montreal Protocol is now hailed as an "extraordinary environmental success'and has come to be regarded as a "model-setting, green, global agreement'. A recent study commissioned by Environment Canada which was tabled at mop -9 concludes that the health and financial benefits of the protocol far outweigh its costs. It …
The good news... CFCs, halons, carbon tetrachloride and methyl chloroform have been phased out in developing countries to a large extent. Growth rates of CFCs and methyl chloroform in the atmosphere have slowed down. The trend of decision making based on science and technology assessments has been established. Over US …
international smuggling of chlorofluorocarbons (cfcs) - gases used as a coolants in refrigerators and air-conditioners that lead to global warming - are generating a lot of heat in political circles. September 16, 1997 marked the 10th anniversary of the Montreal Protocol, a path-breaking global agreement to phase out cfcs after …
Five widely used organophosphate-based pesticides have been added to the list of 17 harmful pesticides by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). As a result, international trade in these pesticides will be strictly monitored. These pesticides are methamidophos, methyl parathion, monocrotophos, parathion and …
More than 11 million children die every year before reaching the age of five, out of which nearly eight million deaths are caused by pneumonia, diarrhoea, measles, malaria and malnutrition. Many of these deaths can be prevented, with the help of Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI), an approach developed …
The executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the secretary general of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) recently signed a memorandum of understanding on the issue of environment and trade. According to Elizabeth Dowdeswell, the executive director of the UNEP, "The joint programme agreed upon …
The contentious issues of governance of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) was resolved at the resumed 19th session of the Governing Council which ended in the UNEP headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, on April 4. Delegates agreed to set up a high-level committee of ministers and officials in charge of environment …
"A REVITALISED UNEP is essential to assist the international community in its efforts to reverse environmentally unsustainable trends," stated a declaration made by the governing council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) at its 19th session in Nairobi from January 27 to February 7. The council, comprising ministers and …
a bloody war is brewing within the portals of the United Nations as two un bodies, the Food and Agricultural Organization (fao) and the un Environment Programme (unep) fight for the control of the world's plant genetic resources. While the recently held World Food Summit in Rome (Down To Earth, …
The fourth UN world conference on women has been underway (September 4-15) in Beijing, China. Weighty -issues being discussed in the conference include action to alleviate poverty, abolishing slavery and prostitution, stopping violence against women, equality under the law and equal access to health care, education and jobs. Around 24,000 …
Revitalisation was the catchword at the United Nations Environment Programme (unep) right from the outset of the recently concluded 18th session of its Governing Council. "It is now time to turn words into action. It is now time to approach environmental issues in an integrated manner, in a way that …
On April 27, Elizateth Dowdeswell, UNEP's executive director, began the 3rd Session of the UN Commission on Sustainable - Development in New York on a strident note. "if we aspire to greater security, to peace, to a decent quality of life, we know it cannot be achieved and sustained unless …
"ATTACKING Poverty, Building Solidarity, Creating Jobs" --these are the 3 central themes on which the United Nations-sponsored World Summit For Social Development, to be held from March 6-12 in Copenhagen, Denmark, rests. Various international communities are patching together a last-minute-bid to define their stands on these issues. For, despite the …
GLOBAL levels ofozone, which shields the from the Sun's harmful ultraviolet radiations, have fallen to a record over the past 2 years. But the worst R to come, according to the report of an international scientific panel. However, a redeeming feature of the 1994 Assessment Panel report, mandated under the …
The ozone layer, which shields life on earth from the Sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation, is slowly disappearing from the upper reaches of the atmosphere, especially over the South Pole. Hence the need to monitor this loss. However, there are problems with the ozone-measuring devices. Satellites and ground-based instruments, for instance, …
IN LESS than a year from now, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) plans to put out an omnibus book on biodiversity. But Indian experts are not too sure that all "issues and views of the South" will find place in the book on Global Biodiversity Assessment (GBA). UNEP's ambitious …
EVEN AS the threat to global biodiversity and the atmosphere increases, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) has frozen all on-going projects and postponed decisions pertaining to others till early November, when the Independent Evaluation Committee will submit its final report. The freeze was prompted by an interim report, which suggests …
In 1977, the UN organised a conference on desertification in which a resolution was passed to start a fund for desertification control. Besides, UNEP also started a desertification programme, but most industrialised countries showed no interest in this. Do you think there has been a change in their perception? It's …
