UNEP Measuring Progress report 2023: Water-related ecosystems and the SDGs

The United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Measuring Progress series of reports provides an overview of the progress made in data availability for the 92 environment-related Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators, coupled with improvement or degradation in the trend of each indicator. The 2023 edition focuses on the progress on the water-related targets in the Sustainable Development Goals.

UN Water Conference side event: From UNEA to General Assembly: Taking action for Sustainable Lake Management

UNEP is active at the UN 2023 Water Conference and together with the Government of Indonesia, they have organized a side event with a theme “From UNEA to General Assembly: Taking action for Sustainable Lake Management – as a catalyst to accelerate global commitment in the Water Action Agenda.”

Historic UN water conference comes amid surge in floods, droughts

The 2023 UN Water Conference is a landmark conference on fresh water taking place at UN Headquarters in New York, 22-24 March 2023, co-hosted by the Government of Tajikistan and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is expected to focus on the rising toll of the climate crisis and the effort to provide clean drinking water to a global population of over 8 billion.

Shrinking glaciers upend lives across South America

The tropical glaciers of the Andes, which feed many of the rivers in the Amazon basin, are some of the fastest retreating ice packs in the world. Their disappearance is not only upending lives in mountain communities, it is also sparking water shortages and hampering hydro-electric power generation across lowland communities home to hundreds of millions of people.

Support to the March 2022 UNEA resolution on sustainable lake management  

To promote sustainable management of lakes, UNEP has launched a portal that provides information about the diversity of lake ecosystems, their importance for human development and planetary health, the interlinked threats they face, and initiatives that UNEP, its partners and you can undertake to help conserve, protect, and restore them to their former glory.

Strengthening African countries’ capacity to report progress in the water sector

The UNEP-DHI Centre is currently conducting a capacity needs assessment for decision making and evidence-based policy advisory in six African Union member states. The study aims to determine the systemic and institutional capacity for reporting water sector progress through WASSMO across the continent.

Life After COP15: How can nature address water-related challenges? 

During COP15, UNEP urged Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity to work with nature to protect biodiversity. A UNEP-DHI publication, How Nature Can Help Address Water-related Challenges – Freshwater Ecosystems Technical Brief, highlights the role that freshwater ecosystems can play in tackling the triple planetary crisis – climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution.

How nature can help address water-related challenges: freshwater ecosystems technical brief

The report highlights the potential of using freshwater ecosystems to implement nature-based solutions (NbS) to tackle the triple planetary crisis – climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution. It draws from lessons learned from the implementation of different projects in Afghanistan, Albania, El-Salvador, Haiti, Kenya, Morocco, and Tanzania.

Nature-based solutions for urban challenges 

To showcase the potential and application of NbS towards adaptation to climate change in urban areas, UNEP has published a report, Nature-Based Solutions for Urban Challenges. The report is the 23rd edition of UNEP’s Foresight Briefs, which highlights emerging environmental issues, systemic insights, and possible policy solutions that can inform decision-making today.