UN Environment Research Articles

Is It the End of the COP as We Know It? An Analysis of the First Year of Virtual Meetings in the UN Environment and Sustainable Development Arena

Abstract The year 2020 started much like any other on the United Nations multilateral calendar. But then the COVID-19 pandemic forced the UN and the world to shut down. After the initial shock wore off, secretariats and governments began to contemplate how to conduct multilateral negotiations during a pandemic. As they created new virtual working methods, they also had to figure out how to maintain trust among delegations and in the process itself to ensure the outcomes of these meetings would be respected. To understand how UN meetings adapted to a virtual environment and maintained trust, this article analyzes a sample of 18 meetings of UN environmental and sustainable development bodies that took place in the 12 months between April 2020 and March 2021. The research examines these cases to see how these meetings were conducted, how they built the necessary trust, and what can be learned from this experience.

Community cooling infrastructure from waste heat among diverse building types in Rourkela Steel Township, India

Urban building energy modeling is an important field in the current decade due to the rising rate of urbanization, specifically in developing countries. The UN environment is promoting urban level space cooling approaches in the upcoming smart cities of India. Rourkela is a tier-2 steel township included within the ‘smart city’ mission in India and houses one of the largest Steel Plants of India, classified under Koppen Aw tropical climate zone. However it experiences extreme heat stress in the dry summer season before the onset of monsoons. The given study proposes an alternative cooling scenario utilizing waste heat from the rolling mill with which cooling in the range of 700-900 tons of nearly zero energy cooling can be made available in the surrounding areas, otherwise catered by an energy intensive cooling system reporting a COP of 2.45. This study can be further expanded to provide cooling to the nearby residential communities keeping the steel plant area as center point for community cooling infrastructure provision.

Forest Cover and Sustainable Development in the Lumbini Province, Nepal: Past, Present and Future

The analysis of forest cover change at different scales is an increasingly important research topic in environmental studies. Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) is an integrated approach to manage and restore forests across various landscapes and environments. Such restoration helps to meet the targets of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)–15, as outlined in the UN Environment’s sixth Global Outlook, which includes the sustainable management of forests, the control of desertification, reducing degradation, biodiversity loss, and the conservation of mountain ecosystems. Here, we have used time series Landsat images from 1996 to 2016 to see how land use, and in particular forest cover, have changed between 1996 and 2016 in the Lumbini Province of Nepal. In addition, we simulated projections of land cover (LC) and forest cover change for the years 2026 and 2036 using a hybrid cellular automata Markov chain (CA–Markov) model. We found that the overall forest area increased by 199 km2 (2.1%), from a 9491 km2 (49.3%) area in 1996 to 9691 km2 (50.3%) area in 2016. Our modeling suggests that forest area will increase by 81 km2 (9691 to 9772 km2) in 2026 and by 195 km2 (9772 km2 to 9966 km2) in 2036. They are policy, planning, management factors and further strategies to aid forest regeneration. Clear legal frameworks and coherent policies are required to support sustainable forest management programs. This research may support the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), the land degradation neutral world (LDN), and the UN decade 2021–2031 for ecosystem restoration.

Air pollution and development in Africa: impacts on health, the economy, and human capital

Africa is undergoing both an environmental and an epidemiological transition. Household air pollution is the predominant form of air pollution, but it is declining, whereas ambient air pollution is increasing. We aimed to quantify how air pollution is affecting health, human capital, and the economy across Africa, with a particular focus on Ethiopia, Ghana, and Rwanda. Data on household and ambient air pollution were from WHO Global Health Observatory, and data on morbidity and mortality were from the 2019 Global Burden of Disease Study. We estimated economic output lost due to air pollution-related disease by country, with use of labour income per worker, adjusted by the probability that a person (of a given age) was working. Losses were expressed in 2019 international dollars and as a proportion of gross domestic product (GDP). We also quantified the contribution of particulate matter (PM)2·5 pollution to intelligence quotient (IQ) loss in children younger than 10 years, with use of an exposure-response coefficient based on previously published data. Air pollution was responsible for 1·1 million deaths across Africa in 2019. Household air pollution accounted for 697 000 deaths and ambient air pollution for 394 000. Ambient air pollution-related deaths increased from 361 000 in 2015, to 383 000 in 2019, with the greatest increases in the most highly developed countries. The majority of deaths due to ambient air pollution are caused by non-communicable diseases. The loss in economic output in 2019 due to air pollution-related morbidity and mortality was $3·02 billion in Ethiopia (1·16% of GDP), $1·63 billion in Ghana (0·95% of GDP), and $349 million in Rwanda (1·19% of GDP). PM2·5 pollution was estimated to be responsible for 1·96 billion lost IQ points in African children in 2019. Ambient air pollution is increasing across Africa. In the absence of deliberate intervention, it will increase morbidity and mortality, diminish economic productivity, impair human capital formation, and undercut development. Because most African countries are still early in development, they have opportunities to transition rapidly to wind and solar energy, avoiding a reliance on fossil fuel-based economies and minimising pollution. UN Environment Programme.

TH20. PATHWAY-BASED POLYGENIC RISK SCORES USING MACHINE LEARNING CLASSIFICATION SCHEMES: APPLICATION TO BIPOLAR DISORDER

Globally, concerns continue to mount over the accelerating increase in worldwide levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and over the consequent rise in temperatures and associated adverse effects. Regulatory efforts and market incentive mechanisms to develop and deploy mitigation (GHG emission reducing) measures—from carbon taxes and emission-trading schemes to research and development and production-tax subsidies and intellectual property rights—have so far proven inadequate to control and reduce emissions. Humans are resistant to behavioral changes, and research and development and deployment (with deployment also including demonstration) of emission-reducing technologies is costly, time-consuming, and may strand valuable assets. Even with the dramatic contraction of economic activity and associated reductions of GHG emissions following lockdowns to address the COVID-19 pandemic, “no one should think that the climate crisis is therefore over—far from it” (UN Environment Programme, 2020).

Introduction

Introduction

Building Environmental Peace: The UN Environment Programme and Knowledge Creation for Environmental Peacebuilding

Abstract Since the aftermath of the 1999 Kosovo Conflict, UNEP has addressed the environmental dimension of insecurities and turned to peacebuilding. This has been risky because it strays close to conflict prevention, identification, or resolution, which lie outside of UNEP’s mandate. I argue that this change in approach results from knowledge creation. UNEP’s experiences about the linkage between environmental degradation and insecurity in postconflict settings motivated its search for opportunities that would legitimize its contribution to postconflict peacebuilding. Seizing on the UN’s Peacebuilding Architecture, UNEP established ECP and, through the program, aimed to develop environmental peacebuilding as a concern through three distinct but interrelated knowledge-building practices: knowledge collection, strategic interpretation, and implementation.

Switching to electric vehicles can lead to significant reductions of PM2.5 and NO2 across China

Switching to electric vehicles can lead to significant reductions of PM2.5 and NO2 across China

Reactions

OPINION Reactions ShareShare onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InRedditEmail C&EN, 2021, 99 (20), p 5May 31, 2021Cite this:C&EN 99, 20, 5(Credit: Andy Brunning)Figure1of1Letters to the editorHyaluronic acidI enjoyed reading Craig Bettenhausen’s article “Hyaluronic Acid, the Everywhere Biopolymer” (C&EN, May 3, 2021, page 26). It has much personal relevance for me. Within a few days of retirement in January 2019 from my position as a research chemist with the US Food and Drug Administration, I started feeling extreme pain in my right knee. X-rays revealed I had developed a moderate case of osteoarthritis in the knee just as I was starting my wonderful new life of retirement. Cortisone shots and physical therapy did nothing to ease the pain. In May of 2019, I received a course of three gel shots—hyaluronic acid—from my orthopedic specialist. The pain was reduced almost immediately after the first injection. After the third injection, the arthritic knee pain was gone. It is now almost 2 years later, and the right knee still feels very good, just an occasional twinge if I overexert it. I now take two capsules of a supplement containing hyaluronic acid, 100 mg total, every day. For me, hyaluronic acid is a miracle drug. Sincere thanks from me to the chemists, medical researchers, and doctors who have developed this treatment.Joseph E. JablonskiTwinsburg, Ohio. CorrectionsApril 26, 2021, page 20: The feature story on using the mass-balance concept to make chemicals should have described a Neste plant as a refinery, not a cracker. Neste’s brand of renewable naphtha is Neste RE, not Naphtha RE. And Neste’s oil is made from 100% renewable raw materials and thus does not have to be independently mass-balance audited.May 17, 2021, page 18: The feature story about a global plastics treaty implies that Inger Andersen suggested that the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal is a strong contender for an existing environmental treaty that could be modified to include plastics. She did not. Also, she said that the UN Environment Assembly could recommend the new accord be an extension of an existing treaty, not that the UNEA is likely to do so.May 24, 2021, page 24: The Periodic Graphics on bicycle materials mistakenly omits an oxygen in the structure of the example polyester (polyethylene terephthalate). The correct structure is shown here.

A deepening understanding of animal culture suggests lessons for conservation.

A key goal of conservation is to protect biodiversity by supporting the long-term persistence of viable, natural populations of wild species. Conservation practice has long been guided by genetic, ecological and demographic indicators of risk. Emerging evidence of animal culture across diverse taxa and its role as a driver of evolutionary diversification, population structure and demographic processes may be essential for augmenting these conventional conservation approaches and decision-making. Animal culture was the focus of a ground-breaking resolution under the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), an international treaty operating under the UN Environment Programme. Here, we synthesize existing evidence to demonstrate how social learning and animal culture interact with processes important to conservation management. Specifically, we explore how social learning might influence population viability and be an important resource in response to anthropogenic change, and provide examples of how it can result in phenotypically distinct units with different, socially learnt behavioural strategies. While identifying culture and social learning can be challenging, indirect identification and parsimonious inferences may be informative. Finally, we identify relevant methodologies and provide a framework for viewing behavioural data through a cultural lens which might provide new insights for conservation management.

Exposure and toxicity characterization of chemical emissions and chemicals in products: global recommendations and implementation in USEtox

PurposeReducing chemical pressure on human and environmental health is an integral part of the global sustainability agenda. Guidelines for deriving globally applicable, life cycle–based indicators are required to consistently quantify toxicity impacts from chemical emissions as well as from chemicals in consumer products. In response, we elaborate the methodological framework and present recommendations for advancing near-field/far-field exposure and toxicity characterization, and for implementing these recommendations into the scientific consensus model USEtox.MethodsAn expert taskforce was convened by the Life Cycle Initiative hosted by UN Environment to expand existing guidance for evaluating human toxicity impacts from exposure to chemical substances. This taskforce evaluated scientific advances since the original release of USEtox and identified two major aspects that required refinement, namely integrating near-field and far-field exposure, and improving human dose-response modeling. Dedicated efforts have led to a set of recommendations to address these aspects in an update of USEtox, while ensuring consistency with the boundary conditions for characterizing life cycle toxicity impacts and being aligned with recommendations from agencies that regulate chemical exposure. The proposed updated USEtox framework was tested in an illustrative rice production and consumption case study.Results and discussionOn the exposure side, a matrix system is proposed and recommended to integrate far-field exposure from environmental emissions with near-field exposure from chemicals in various consumer product types. Consumer exposure is addressed via sub-models for each product type to account for product type-specific characteristics and exposure settings. Case study results illustrate that product use–related exposure dominates overall life cycle exposure. On the effect side, a probabilistic dose-response approach combined with a decision tree for identifying reliable points of departure is proposed for non-cancer effects, following recent guidance from the World Health Organization. This approach allows for explicitly considering both uncertainty and human variability in toxicity effect factors. Factors reflecting disease severity are proposed to distinguish cancer from non-cancer effects and within the latter to discriminate reproductive/developmental and other non-cancer effects. All proposed aspects have been consistently implemented into the original USEtox framework.ConclusionsThe recommended methodological advancements address several key limitations in earlier approaches. Next steps are to test the new characterization framework in additional case studies and to close remaining research gaps. Our framework is applicable for evaluating chemical emissions and product-related exposure in life cycle assessment, chemical alternatives assessment and chemical substitution, consumer exposure and risk screening, and high-throughput chemical prioritization.

Climate change and mental health: An overview

According to the UN Environment Programme “climate change is one of the most pervasive and threatening issues of our time”. “In many places, temperature changes and sea-level rise are already putting ecosystems under stress and affecting human well-being” (1). The presentation wants to give an overview on how climate change can affect mental health. A search was performed on PubMed for the combination of “climate change” and “mental health”. 281 publications were identified, the first being from 2007 (the only one in that year). In 2020, until Dec 22nd, 76 publications were found. The somehow prophetic 2007 publication reviews “natural disasters, climate change and mental health considerations for rural Australia” (2) and pinpoints central aspects of today’s debate, namely anxiety and depression, vulnerability and resilience. In addition to problems of rural areas (2), the impact of urbanicity (3) will be discussed as well as the role of air pollution on psychiatric disorders (4). (1) UN Environment Programme. https://www.unenvironment.org/explore-topics/climate-change/about-climate-change Dec 22nd, 2020. (2) Morissey SA, Reser JP. Aust J Rural Health. 2007 Apr;15(2):120-5. doi: 10.1111/j.1440-1584.2007.00865.x. (3) Krabbendam L et al. Psychol Med. 2020 Mar 11:1-12. doi: 10.1017/S0033291720000355. (4) Kim SY et al. Sci Total Environ. 2020 Dec 8;757:143960. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143960.DisclosureNo significant relationships.

At 50, the UN Environment Programme must lead again

To protect the planet’s health, the agency must rediscover its capacity for connecting organizations. To protect the planet’s health, the agency must rediscover its capacity for connecting organizations.

COVID-19 pandemic lockdown: effects on the air quality of South Asia.

The world is facing an unexpected, like never before, situation due to COVID-19. The measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic are to incorporate lockdown, social distancing, disconnection, and home isolation. Lockdown was enforced by the various governments of the South Asian countries, which include non-working of all the businesses and assembling units, with limited access to the outer world pertaining to essential commodities. However, During the COVID-19 pandemic, an uncommon positive impact is noteworthy for worldwide abatement in air-contamination levels. Principally, specialists have estimated significant improvement in air quality and a remarkable decrease in concentration levels of various harmful gases like sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), and ozone (O3). In this article, there is an analysis made on the impact of Covid-19 lockdown on the air quality of the South Asian region i.e. (that is) the various environmental parameters along with others namely aerosol, temperature, and particulate matter (PM2.5, PM10). The work includes the refining and analysis of crude information of this present (2020) and the past year of different toxic gases and parameters of air pollutants. These have been obtained from pollution control boards of respective South Asian nations alongside information and satellite pictures from the UN Environment Program and Space Administration for correlation of various parameters. It has been observed that there is a sharp dip in the pollutant concentration in South Asia. This examination altogether will be valuable data to environmentalists and experts to make the future policies for improving air quality and the environment.

Accelerating towards net zero emissions: the most important global health intervention

Accelerating towards net zero emissions: the most important global health intervention

Clash of Geofutures and the Remaking of Planetary Order: Faultlines underlying Conflicts over Geoengineering Governance

AbstractClimate engineering (geoengineering) is rising up the global policy agenda, partly because international divisions pose deep challenges to collective climate mitigation. However, geoengineering is similarly subject to clashing interests, knowledge‐traditions and geopolitics. Modelling and technical assessments of geoengineering are facilitated by assumptions of a single global planner (or some as yet unspecified rational governance), but the practicality of international governance remains mostly speculative. Using evidence gathered from state delegates, climate activists and modellers, we reveal three underlying and clashing ‘geofutures’: an idealised understanding of governable geoengineering that abstracts from technical and political realities; a situated understanding of geoengineering emphasising power hierarchies in world order; and a pragmatist precautionary understanding emerging in spaces of negotiation such as UN Environment Assembly (UNEA). Set in the wider historical context of climate politics, the failure to agree even to a study of geoengineering at UNEA indicates underlying obstacles to global rules and institutions for geoengineering posed by divergent interests and underlying epistemic and political differences. Technology assessments should recognise that geoengineering will not be exempt from international fractures; that deployment of geoengineering through imposition is a serious risk; and that contestations over geofutures pertain, not only to climate policy, but also the future of planetary order.

From South Asia to the world: embracing the challenge of global sustainable nitrogen management

From South Asia to the world: embracing the challenge of global sustainable nitrogen management

Legal status of environmental refugees as a vulnerable categories of the population requiring environmental and legal protection

The increase in the number of people forced to leave their homes due to climate changes or other environmental problems is growingsteadily. The number of vulnerable categories of population requiring environmental protection is increasing. In this regard, theconcept of “environmental refugee” has emerged at the global level, which requires clear legal regulation and its formal classificationas vulnerable.The results of numerous studies show that the cause of migration is not only political and economic factors, but also the environmentalsituation in a particular area. To determine climatic factors, a standardized precipitation and evaporation index SPEI is used,which is called the “multi-scalar drought index”, which determines the onset, duration and extent of drought relative to normal conditionsin various systems (rivers, sowing areas, ecosystems).The concept of “environmental refugees” is currently recognized in the Global Compact on safe, orderly and legal migration inaccordance with its 2018 goals.The issue of environmental refugees has been discussed at the UN level since 1985, when UNEP – UN Environment Programexpert Essam El-Hinawi identified environmental refugees as “… people who have been forced to leave their habitat, temporarily orpermanently, due to noticeable changes in the environment (natural or man-made), which endangered their existence or significantlyaffected their quality of life. “The definition of environmental refugees should include the following distinguishing features: forced migration, temporary orpermanent relocation, border crossings, disturbances related to climate change: whether they are natural or anthropogenic.The analysis of acts of “soft law” and international agreements in the context of the legal status of “environmental refugees” givesgrounds to classify “environmental refugees” as vulnerable categories of the population subject to environmental and legal protectionon the following grounds:1) environmental refugees are those who have suffered from natural disasters and slow climate change, which destroys the conditionsof proper existence of each person, protection of his fundamental rights, and therefore they are forced to leave their places ofresidence due to environmentally unfavorable conditions;2) environmental refugees are persons of different ages, health conditions, social status, race and nationality, which already automaticallyclassifies them as “vulnerable”;3) environmental refugees need environmental and legal protection and protection, as well as an appropriate legal mechanism toregulate their status as a community at the international legal level and at the national level.

Design of an endpoint indicator for mineral resource supply risks in life cycle sustainability assessment: The case of Li‐ion batteries

Concerns have risen in recent years about the accessibility of raw materials considered “critical” for technological advancements. The GeoPolRisk indicator was designed as a midpoint indicator in life cycle sustainability assessment to measure geopolitical supply risk with the aim to incorporate raw material criticality as a complement to environmental life cycle assessment (LCA). A recent review of supply risk methods conducted within the Task Force on mineral resources of the Life Cycle Initiative hosted by UN Environment Programme highlighted the opportunity to extend the methodology to an endpoint level. We address this opportunity by presenting GeoPolEndpoint, an indicator that measures the socio-economic damage of the use of mineral resources linked to the area of protection “Natural Resources” in LCA. We build upon previous efforts by introducing price elasticity considerations and modeling potential effects of supply disruptions on commodity markets in the form of a welfare loss and a loss of consumer surplus. The socio-economic damage occurs as geopolitically driven increased costs for raw materials. We test our method on aluminum, cobalt, nickel, and copper, materials relevant for lithium-ion batteries. Results show that nickel and cobalt dominate the contribution to socio-economic damages because of their price and supply risk; we estimate the impact of the use of the four analyzed materials as a potential increased cost ranging from 0.30 to 1.86 USD/kWh depending on the technology and year. We build the steps to assess how the use of certain raw materials could have a substantial economic impact when developing technologies, possibly identifying the shifting of burden due to certain materials not usually deemed important from an environmental perspective. This article met the requirements for a gold-gold JIE data openness badge described at http://jie.click/badges.

Climate Change: EU taxonomy and forward looking analysis in the context of emerging climate related and environmental risks

Climate change is causing substantial structural adjustments to the global economy. Several sectors, such as coal and steel, are undergoing severe problems related to the inevitable transition to a low-carbon economy, while others such as renewables and new environmental adaptation technologies are benefiting substantially. In this context, regulators are beginning to intervene on the legislation, while investors, customers and civil society are looking for alternatives to mitigate, adapt and make these issues more transparent. This article aims to analyze the impact that these changes will inevitably have on banks' balance sheets, introducing new risks but also opportunities. The final purpose is to help banks integrate climate risks into their organizational framework and to provide guidance on the implementation of the recommendations published by the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) within the broader Financial Stability Board (FSB) objectives and the UN Environment Finance Initiative (UNEP FI). Starting from a long-term perspective, the work suggests considering climate risk as a financial risk, overcoming traditional approaches that focus on reputational risk. This change implies the integration of climate change risk into the logic of Risk Management (Credit, Market and Operational risks) and a consequent sharing of responsibilities with the structures of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The TCFD recommendations urge banks to use forward looking scenario analyzes, including stress tests, to evaluate and disseminate the "actual and potential impacts" of climate-related risks and opportunities, suggesting in particular to consider the consequences in terms of two categories of risk: physical and transition risk