Unece and Climate Change

We are the last generation with the ability to stop climate change. If we fail, it will be a historic mistake. But there is no single “silver bullet” that can address this challenge. We need to change behaviours through the right set of rules; we need to face and adapt to the impacts that cannot be avoided, in particular through better water management; we need incentives and solutions for more efficient use of resources, in particular in areas such as housing, energy and transport; we need to harness the still untapped potential of forests; we need good data to understand where we are so we can take informed decisions and design better policies; we need to develop new technologies that reduce the cost of climate change mitigation and facilitate the dissemination of existing ones. And we need to do this across multiple sectors in an open and transparent way that engages the public in finding solutions and taking action. All this is what we are already doing at UNECE, a driving force in combating climate change in the pan-European region where we transform global goals into practical solutions for climate change mitigation and adaptation.


UNECE contributes to define a legal and regulatory framework that facilitates climate change mitigation: from the inclusion of black carbon and particulate matter in the revised Gothenburg Protocol of the Air Convention to the various regulations and standards reducing emissions and resource use. But climate change is an inescapable reality that will also require adaptation efforts. Extensive work has been carried out on climate change adaptation strategies for water management under the Water Convention. Infrastructure will play a major role in adaptation and UNECE has been engaged in assessing and offering solutions in transport.


Having the right data is the first step in understanding current trends and assessing the impact of any policies. UNECE has played an important role in developing appropriate climate change statistics, including through the release in December 2014 of Recommendations on Climate Change-related Statistics. The Kiev Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers also provides a channel for collecting and making available information on pollutants. Our work on resource classification incorporates multiple dimensions and is helping not only governments but also investors to take more informed decisions.