As climate change feeds increasingly frequent hurricanes in the Caribbean, UNEP has implemented a revolving loans programme. This will facilitate low-interest loans to Antigua and Barbuda residents for hurricane-proofing their homes.

Despite its widespread use, mercury has been known for centuries to be toxic. Adopted in 2013, the Minamata convention aims at stepping up action on mercury pollution to help attain a pollution-free planet.

Unsustainable food production and consumption are key challenges facing humanity. Urgent action is needed to transform our food systems to ensure food security, end hunger, and address the triple planetary crisis. Feed the world while nourishing the planet!

International tourism is headed back to pre-pandemic levels, with double the number of people travelling so far in 2023 than in the same period last year. Tourism is a huge industry. Unsurprisingly, tourism is a big contributor to the global plastic pollution crisis. Eight out of 10 tourists visit coastal areas, adding to the 8 million tonnes of plastic that enter the ocean every year. A joint 2021 report from UNEP and the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) highlighted the need for coordinated actions, policies and infrastructures to drive the industry toward circularity.

Fishing communities in Madagascar have seen their catches dwindle - a by-product of overfishing. But in some communities, fish stocks have start5ed to rebound thanks to small grants from UNEP.

In a world where tonnes of edible food is lost, leaving people hungry and small-scale farmers in poverty, temperature-controlled storage and transport of food is a solution. FAO, the Ozone Secretariat of UNEP, UNEP and the Italian Ministry of Environment and Energy are working with countries to find solutions to sustainably expand cold chain infrastructure, where viable, using renewable energy to power cooling.

Nenquimo, a UNEP advocate, fronted a lawsuit that banned resource extraction on 500,000 acres of her ancestral lands. The victory of that court case has brought new hope to Indigenous communities.

The Freshwater Challenge aims to restore 300,000km of rivers  - equivalent to more than 7 times around the Earth - and 350 million hectares of wetlands - an area larger than India - by 2030.

To save our land, we must save our ecosystems. One million species are threatened with extinction, soils are turning infertile and water sources are drying up. UNEP presents China’s Shan-Shui Initiative which is reviving lost land and forgotten villages as innovators marry science and tradition to bring rural economies and landscapes back to life.

UNEP presents peatlands, which are effective carbon sinks, absorbing more carbon from the atmosphere than they produce. The Congo Basin peat swamp forest stores around 29 billion tons of carbon and cover only 3% of the Earth's surface. However, despite their importance, the world’s peatlands are disappearing at an alarming rate. 

The report "Bracing for Superbugs" provides evidence that the environment plays a key role in the development, transmission and spread of Antimicrobial resistance.

Natural gas has long been billed as a good steppingstone to replace coal with renewable energy. As solar arrays and wind farms are being built, the theory goes, natural gas can be a stand-in for “dirtier” fuels, like coal and, in some cases, oil. But research indicates that emissions of methane – the main constituent of natural gas – that occur during its extraction and transport mean natural gas isn’t as climate-friendly as once thought. UNEP tells us about the role natural gas should play in reducing emissions and the transition to a renewable energy future.

UNEP reports on the landmark agreement to guide action on nature through to 2030 resulting from the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15). 188 governments adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework aiming to address biodiversity loss, restore ecosystems and protect indigenous rights. The plan includes concrete measures to halt and reverse nature loss, including putting 30 per cent of the planet and 30 per cent of degraded ecosystems under protection by 2030. It also contains proposals to increase finance to developing countries – a major issue during talks.

In March, a recycled plastic gavel hammered down sealing a global resolution to work towards ending plastic pollution, long considered one of the planet’s most pressing environmental blights. The agreement was one of several major environmental accords forged in 2022, which observers have called a historic year for the planet. In pacts, many shepherded by UNEP, that unfolded from March to December, nations large and small committed to addressing everything from the fallout of climate change to a looming extinction crisis. Here's a closer look at 2022’s environmental milestones.

The United Nations recognizes 10 ground-breaking efforts from around the globe for their role in restoring the natural world. They were selected under the banner of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, a global movement coordinated by UNEP and FAO, designed to prevent and reverse the degradation of natural spaces across the planet. The winning initiatives are eligible to receive UN-backed promotion, advice or funding. Together, the 10 flagships aim to restore more than 68 million hectares − an area bigger than Myanmar, France or Somalia − and create nearly 15 million jobs.