Central to the achievement of the Agenda for Sustainable Development is an adequate, equitably distributed and fully supported health workforce. Nurses are the largest occupational group and represent an indispensable force with which to combat inequities in access to health services and progress towards health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while …
Water scarcity is rapidly increasing in many regions. In a novel, multi-model assessment, we examine how human interventions (HI: land use and land cover change, man-made reservoirs and human water use) affected monthly river water availability and water scarcity over the period 1971–2010. Here we show that HI drastically change …
Is America under Donald Trump losing its sheen in the international arena? It is a pertinent question to seek an answer to, particularly more after America’s withdrawal in fighting the ‘war’ against climate change. Two weeks on, the international community, its leaders, climate experts are still trying to wrap its …
As some 1.4 million people in Europe and Central Asia die prematurely each year from polluted environments, United Nations agency heads at high-level meeting call for regional leaders to scale up action to stem environmental deaths and diseases. "In the era of Sustainable Development, we can prevent the 1.4 million …
Despite comprising over 300 million inhabitants and representing 4.9% of the world’s GDP, 17 UNECE countries in South and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia had only 0.2% or USD 0.4 billion of global renewable energy investment in 2015. Attracting investment is a major challenge in these countries, despite …
In 1931 Mahatma Gandhi ridiculed the idea that India might have universal primary education “inside of a century”. He was too pessimistic. Since 1980 the share of Indian teenagers who have had no schooling has fallen from about half to less than one in ten. That is a big, if …
Many new vehicle technologies are claiming to be the best in class to reduce the impact on the environment. However what are ‘green’ or ‘clean’ vehicles? How can this be assessed in the appropriate scientific way? The underling assessment compares the environmental aspects of mainly compressed natural gas (CNG) and …
The cost of emitting carbon dioxide must rise to $50-$100 per tonne by 2030, much higher than the current price in Europe of less than $6, if countries are to meet climate pledges made under the Paris Agreement, economists said on Monday. It follows a call this month by a …
Nobel literature laureate and songsmith Bob Dylan certainly got it right: a hard rain is going to fall. As global temperatures rise, extremes of torrential rain will increase accordingly, with the heaviest rainfall up to 15 per cent more intense for every 1°C that the planet warms. If global temperatures …
Belgium on Thursday extended commuter tax benefits for cyclists traveling to work on any electric bicycles. Employers in Belgium can currently reward staff if they come to work on a bicycle, paying them for every kilometer they cycle, in an effort to promote environmentalism and a healthier lifestyle. Commuters can …
The harmful impact of urban air pollution could be combated by strategically placing low hedges along roads in a built-up environment of cities instead of taller trees, research has found. Higher trees only have more of an impact in reducing air pollution in areas which are more open and are …
LONDON: The Indian population originated from three separate waves of migration from Africa, Iran and Central Asia over a period of 50,000 years, scientists have found using genetic evidence from people alive in the subcontinent today. The Indian Subcontinent harbours huge genetic diversity, in addition to its vast patchwork of …
Tipping point: India shoulders the highest TB burden in the world, with over 2 million cases. By 2040, 12.4% of patients in the country will have that variant, reports Lancet A month after the Health Ministry set itself the target of eliminating tuberculosis (TB) by 2025, a new study in …
All flowering plants sold by B&Q; are to be grown without using pesticides that are harmful to bees, the retailer has announced. A series of scientific studies have shown that bees are exposed to neonicotinoid pesticides in fields and suffer serious harm from the doses they receive. The European commission …
This Compendium is the final publication of the first phase of the IDMP Central and Eastern Europe (IDMP CEE) and provides an overview of the programme’s outputs and accomplishments achieved in the period from 2013 to 2015. The focus of IDMP CEE was to support policy makers through activities which …
This policy brief presents recommendations for action on black carbon, an air pollutant and climate forcer, in the European context. Given the current emissions profile in Europe, targeting the diesel transport and residential combustion sectors will be essential for prioritizing black carbon reductions when taking action on fine particulate matter, …
This report synthesises research and knowledge on climate change impacts and adaptation under higher-end climate warming scenarios, defined as global warming exceeding 2°C relative to pre-industrial times. It explores the implications and risks of exceeding 2°C, the challenges and opportunities of adaptation to such a warmer world, and the extent …
Water scarcity half a world away caused by climate change could push up prices for meat and diary products in Europe by disrupting supplies of soybean, which is widely used as feed for livestock, researchers said Wednesday. The European Union sources most soybean from outside the 28-nation bloc - mainly …
Noise pollution poses a high risk to human health. This briefing presents updated estimates of the numbers of people exposed to environmental noise pollution in Europe. It also provides a new summary of the measures being used in Member States to manage noise. Road traffic remains by far the most …
Cancer is a major cause of death in children worldwide, and the recorded incidence tends to increase with time. Internationally comparable data on childhood cancer incidence in the past two decades are scarce. This study aimed to provide internationally comparable local data on the incidence of childhood cancer to promote …
Flooding is assessed as the most important natural hazard in Europe, causing thousands of deaths, affecting millions of people and accounting for large economic losses in the past decade. Little is known about the damage processes associated with extreme rainfall in cities, due to a lack of accurate, comparable and …
