Topic: UNEP

Focusing development and traditional finance towards low carbon energy efficient infrastructure will fight climate change, help the world meet sustainability targets and boost global economic productivity, the world’s finance ministers have been told.

The United Nations treated government ministers and officials to a meal of blemished African fruit and vegetables to highlight how perfectly edible food is being rejected by European supermarkets.

SPECIAL REPORT / SPECIAL REPORT / Rattled in Europe by the REACH regulation and carbon dioxide emission curbs, international chemical companies are at the Rio Earth Summit determined to push for a global approach to environmental policy – but with a light regulatory touch.

Europeans are barred from exporting hazardous electronic waste to other countries, yet research shows there is a flourishing export market of such junk to Africa.

European leaders on Friday (2 March) could throw their weight behind a plan to convert the relatively powerless UN Environment Programme (UNEP) into a world body with the muscle to oversee treaties and protect the ecology.

A report from the United Nations Environment Programme reveals an increase in sustainable-energy investment of 43% between 2005 and 2006, and a similar continued growth trajectory so far in 2007.

During the Global Environment Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, the EU suggested new initiatives on mercury, chemicals management, sustainable production and consumption, engagement of business and international environmental governance.

A huge brown cloud of pollution over Asia could have global climate and health implications, according to a new study by a scientist team of UNEP.