The world is not on track to meet any of its water-related Sustainable Development Goals. To turn this situation around, countries need more finance to accelerate action on freshwater ecosystems, but also more comprehensive data, forecasting and modelling to guide action and make it effective.

The UNEP-DHI Centre, based in Copenhagen, Denmark, is a long-term partner of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) providing direct support to the implementation of UNEP’s freshwater work, and the water-related elements within UNEP’s Medium-term Strategy, 2022-2025. More specifically, it provides cutting-edge technical expertise to help promote the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 6 on water, as well as other water-related goals.

Making best use of rapidly improving technology and data crunching methods – for instance, for using the latest satellite Earth observations and applying machine learning algorithms to measure the extent of wetlands globally – is becoming increasingly critical for accurate assessment of, and reporting on, progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. UNEP-DHI has proven experience in this area.

We asked Gareth Lloyd, the centre’s Deputy Chief Manager, about how UNEP-DHI came into being, what it contributes to UNEP’s work on freshwater ecosystems, and why its work is critical for UNEP.

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For more information, please contact Joakim Harlin: Joakim.harlin@un.org