All publications and documents

The fifth annual report on the changing environment produced by the United Nations Environment Programme in collaboration with many world environmental experts. The UNEP Year Book 2008 highlights the increasing complexity and interconnections of climate change, ecosystem integrity, human well-being, and economic development. It examines the emergence and influence of economic mechanisms and…

The UNEP Year Book 2009 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. All ecosystems are undergoing change, but some transitions are more dramatic than…

The UNEP Year Book 2010 reports on new environmental science and 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 affect human health and the environment; environmentally related disasters and…

The UNEP Year Book 2011 shows that we have been experiencing an exceptional level of ecological extremes. However, scientists and policy makers have been making headway on addressing some of the most pressing environmental issues. The UNEP Year Book 2011 underlines some of the successes achieved when science is fully brought into service for sustainable development. Yet, it also spotlights that…

The 2012 UNEP Year Book spotlights two emerging issues that underline the challenges but also the choices nations need to consider to deliver a sustainable 21st century— urgently improved management of the world’s soils and the decommissioning of nuclear reactors. Superficially they may seem separate and unconnected issues. But both go to the heart of several fundamental questions: how the…

The UNEP Year Book 2013 shows that changes in the Arctic will have consequences far beyond this fragile region and that they require an urgent international response. The volume of chemicals in the world continues to grow, with a shift in production from developed to developing countries. To meet the goal of producing and using chemicals in ways that minimize significant impacts on health and the…