In the pan-European region, citizens are feeling the impacts of climate change through extreme weather events. This undermines equitable access to water and sanitation as human rights, due to increasing water scarcity and increased burden of water diseases due to overflow of untreated sewerage caused by flash floods.
Policy solutions for pressing problems like air pollution require sound data. Emission inventories can help in determining the major sources of air pollution in a given country.
Transboundary rivers, lakes, and aquifers play a vital role in supporting the livelihoods of billions of people worldwide. Roughly 60% of global freshwater flow is in shared basins. About 40% of the world’s population lives in shared basins. The development and management of transboundary water resources have historically been fraught with challenges. Divergent interests, inadequate legal frameworks, and limited technical capacity have often impeded equitable and sustainable cooperation among riparian states.
Global goals – just like regional and national goals — can only be achieved if we work together. This is a reason that revitalizing partnerships is at the heart of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Understanding how pollutant emissions will evolve in the future is essential for designing effective clean air policies today while taking into account the available resources in a given country.
Almost all of Botswana’s territory sits within transboundary rivers basins. Although landlocked, Botswana is therefore a ‘water-linked’ country. The Cubango-Okavango, Limpopo, Orange-Senqu and Zambezi Rivers all provide crucial freshwater arteries that supply people and nature, including the Okavango Delta, a major tourist destination for the country.
An estimated 3.6 billion people face inadequate access to water at least a month per year – a figure expected to increase to more than 5 billion by 2050. According to WMO, over 50% of global catchment areas and reservoirs displayed deviations from normal conditions in 2022, of which the majority were drier than usual.
Every year, forest fires set new records. The 2023 wildfire season in the Northern Hemisphere could not have been worse.
The wildfire that ravaged northeastern Greece in August was the largest single wildfire recorded in the European Union (EU), burning more than 810 square kilometres.
On 4 October 2023, North Macedonia became the 28th country to join the UNECE-WHO/Europe Protocol on Water and Health, thus committing to drive action on water, sanitation and hygiene, protecting its natural resources and fostering a healthier environment for its citizens.
Sound emission inventories are the first step for designing effective clean air policies as they provide information about the main sources and the most acute air pollution problems in a country.