The UNEP Year Book 2010 is essential, informative and authoritative reading and reports on new environmental science plus recent developments in our changing environment. It looks at progress in environmental governance: the effects of continuing degradation and loss of the world's ecosystems; impacts of climate change; how harmful substances and hazardous waste effect human health and the environment; environmentally related disasters and conflicts; and unsustainable use of resources. Water is a recurrent theme in this seventh edition. Each chapter considers water-related environmental changes, together with a number of challenges and opportunites.

The 8th Edition of the UN Environment Programme flagship report, The UNEP Year Book 2011, examines global emerging issues and provides the latest environmental science. it also highlights major environmental events and developments over the past year, and presents the most recent data and indicator trends. The ocean has become a global repository for much of the waste we produce. Scientists are concerned that plastic debris in the ocean can transport toxic substances which may end up in the food chain, causing potential harm to ecosystems and human health. The Year Book also explores the wider implications of the use of phosphorus in food production. Phosphorus is an essential nutrient whose supply is limited. Since demand for fertilizer in agriculture rocketed in the 20th century, large amounts of phosphorus are flowing into the environment. New perspectives are also emerging on how biodiversity conservation can be integrated in forest management. Forests are receiving increasing attention, not least because of their role in climate change mitigation. Halting loss of forest biodiversity is essential if forests are to adapt to mounting pressures, including climate change and pest outbreaks. The Year Book's overview of events and developments during 2010 shows how cutting edge science reveals new opportunities to mitigate climate change while improving air quality. Stimulated by technological innovation and green investments, renewable energy supply is growing rapidly. This and other developments are summarized in key environmental indicators that present the latest data and trends For The global environment.

The 2010 Annual Report catalogues the beginning of a new, strategic and transformational direction for UNEP as it began implementing its Medium Term Strategy (MTS) for 2010-2013 across six areas: Climate change; Disasters and conflicts; Ecosystem management; Environmental governance; Harmful substances and hazardous waste; Resource efficiency, Sustainable consumption and production. 2010 was important for many reasons, a year of on-going financial instability set against an increase in the frequency and intensity of natural disasters and shifting weather patterns. UNEP's broad response is catalogued in this 2010 Annual Report report - from global assessments to rapid mechanisms in Haiti in response to the January earthquake and advisory services to countries interested in transitioning to greener economies. This report attempts to set UNEP's work over the last year in context and show its future relevance in meeting the emerging challenges of the coming years. The core objective of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is to serve as an authoritative advocate for the global environment, To help governments set the global environmental agenda, and to promote the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system.

How do we take stock of the state and direction of the world’s environment, and what can we learn from the experience? Among the myriad detailed narratives about the condition of the planet, the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) reports—issued by the United Nations Environment Programme—stand out as the most ambitious. For nearly three decades the GEO project has not only delivered iconic global assessment reports, but through its multitude of contributors has inspired hundreds of similar processes worldwide from the regional to the local level. This book provides an inside account of the evolution of the GEO project from its earliest days. Building on meticulous research, including interviews with former heads of the United Nations Environment Programme, diplomats, leading contributing scientists, and senior leaders of collaborating organizations, the story is told from the perspective of five GEO veterans who all played a pivotal role in shaping the periodic assessments. The GEO’s history provides striking insights and will save valuable time to those who commission, design and conduct, as well as critique and improve, assessments of environmental development in the next decade.

'the most convenient and reliable starting point for information on public affairs' - George J. Mitchell, US Senator. Each copy comes with FREE online access to www.statesmansyearbook.com . Site license upgrades are also available for libraries who wish to network the data. New this year: a chronology of the 'credit crunch.'

Sustainability Appraisal is a sourcebook of the state-of-the-art of this rapidly emerging and diversifying area. It draws on a wealth of international experiences and approaches to illustrate the status and scope of Sustainability Appraisal/Assessment (SA) This comprehensive guide highlights how SA can be used to analyse and integrate the key environmental, social and economic pillars of sustainability into decision-making at all levels, from policy to project to investment, by government, business and industry, or international organizations. Distilling both published and unpublished materials, and with contributions from a range of leading experts, organizations and agencies, this book will be of significant value to professionals everywhere who are in need of a solid, reference guide to what constitutes SA practice and, more importantly, how and when it can be applied.

In the 21st century, anthropogenic (human-caused) environmental change is widespread and serious on the global, regional/transboundary, and local levels. Emphasizing the environmental, social, and human damage caused by non-sustainable development, International Environmental Law and Policy for the 21st Century, Second Revised Edition by Nanda and Pring, provides readers with an incisive and integrated approach to the political, economic, scientific, and technological realities and challenges facing international environmental law and policy today. This provocative new book offers innovative chapters on such crucial current imperatives as: • the nature and scope of the challenge; • first principles of international environmental law; • environment and human rights; • environment and the nexus of international trade, finance and debt; and • the unfinished agenda. Traditional subjects covered include the history of international environmental law, the law of the sea, international freshwater resources, cross-border air pollution, ozone depletion and climate change, the technology of chemicals manufacture and transport, disposal of hazardous waste, preservation ofand biodiversity, environmental impact analysis, and regulation of nuclear energy. The book also features a critical examination of the UN’s activities on the environment, starting from the 1972 Stockholm Convention on the Environment, up to and including the 2012 Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development. With new chapters devoted to critical energy and population issues, and a new section on corporate social responsibility, International Environmental Law & Policy for the 21st Century is an essential resource for students, scholars, lawyers, public officials, corporate decision-makers, and technical consultants concerned with environmental issues.

UNEP Year Book 2009: New Science and Developments in our Changing Environment presents work in progress on scientific understanding of global environmental change, as well as foresight about possible issues on the horizon. The aim is to raise awareness of the interlinkages among environmental issues that can accelerate the rates of change and threaten human wellbeing. The chapters of the Year Book track the same trajectory as our awareness of environmental change. Transformations are inherent to this trajectory and are taking place on many fronts: from industrial agriculture to eco-agriculture; from a wasteful society towards a resource efficient one; and from a triad of competing interests among civil society, the private sector, and governments to a more cooperative model based on mutual benefits.

Public institutions, academic researchers and financial analysts among others hail nanotechnologies as one of the most promising sectors of social and economic development. Calculations predict that it will become a trillion euro industry by 2015 and that it will bring about economic change of at least the same magnitude as the industrial revolution. Nanotechnology is recent, younger by some thirty years than biotechnology, but it appears at a point in time in human history where there is a convergence between the globalization of access to information and increasing awareness of the importance of sustainable development. Nanotechnology and Sustainable Development explores the ways in which this convergence leads to a change in the management of innovation – and ultimately a reshaping of technological democracy. The scope of the study is global, with a particular focus on Europe and the United States, utilizing several case studies of stakeholders including entrepreneurs, commentators, end users, scientists, and policy makers.

Sara Nofri combines several research methods (multilingual bibliographic research, quantitative content analysis, semiotic text analysis, interviews to journalists) and a cross-cultural, interdisciplinary perspective for investigating environmental communication in the daily quality press of Germany, Italy, Sweden and UK. She provides an in-depth portrait of the features, the focus, the themes and stakeholders involved, individuates different "cultures of environment" and "cultures of communication", and provides insights and practical tools to analyze and then evaluate environmental communication. The methodological approach of this study can be readily transposed to studies investigating other contexts, cultures and media.