Environment: What’s Up in GENeva | 10 – 16 August 2020

The Geneva Environment Network weekly newsletter includes updates on global environmental agenda, main events, jobs and learning opportunities, and other useful news. Stay tuned and follow us also on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or visit our website regularly for additional updates.

Green Summer in Geneva

As this week seems less busy, take a look at our list of suggestions of environmental awareness activities to safely entertaining this summer in Geneva: exhibitions, workshops, shows, contests, outdoor activities and online resources. This page is regularly updated.

COVID-19 and the Environment

The COVID-19 pandemic is a crisis that affects everyone. As the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, said

The pandemic has exposed the fragility of our societies and economies to global shocks, such as disease or climate disruption. As we recover, we must build back better for people and for the planet.

The Secretary General keeps reminding us, that we have a framework for action – the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and has launched the UN Comprehensive Response to COVID-19.

Latest updates on COVID-19 and the environment

Our Update on COVID-19 and the environment lists relevant information, research, data and press releases on the environmental origins and impacts of the pandemic. Among the press releases and articles issued last week:

Zoonotic host diversity increases in human-dominated ecosystems | Gibb, R., Redding, D.W., Chin, K.Q. et al. | Nature | 5 August 2020
Fighting COVID-19 could cost 500 times as much as pandemic prevention measures | Jeremy Schwab | WEF and Futirity | 3 August 2020
Six million Euros made available for conservation action to counter COVID-19 impacts | IUCN | 3 August 2020
Current and future global climate impacts resulting from COVID-19 | Forster, P.M., Forster, H.I., Evans, M.J. et al. | Nature Climate Change | 6 August 2020
Cities – where the fight for a green recovery will be won or lost | UNEP | 6 August 2020

A World Free of Nuclear Weapons

Seventy-five years ago, the world’s first atomic bombings took place in Hiroshima (6 August) and Nagasaki (9 August). The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), with headquarters in Geneva, is a broad, inclusive campaign, focused on mobilizing civil society around the world to support the specific objective of prohibiting and eliminating nuclear weapons. As of last week, 44 countries have ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, just six ratifications missing for its entry into force.

As preparations are underway to celebrate in 2022 the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm Conference) and the creation of UNEP, it is the occasion to remind that Principle 26 of the final Declaration of this conference, adopted in Stockholm in 1972, is about the elimination and destruction of nuclear weapons.

75 years after the bomb, Hiroshima still chooses ‘reconciliation and hope’ | UN News | 6 August 2020
Calling for the international non-proliferation and disarmament architecture to be safeguarded and strengthened, the UN chief cited next year’s Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, as an opportunity for States to “return to this shared vision”.
IPU reiterates calls to eliminate nuclear weapons | IPU | 6 August 2020
On the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (6 and 9 August), the IPU renews its calls for parliamentary action to ban the 14,000 nuclear weapons in the world today. In a letter co-signed with the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, the IPU encourages all its Members to adopt the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

Climate Change and Displacement

The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) is dedicating its 2020 Annual Conference on Internal Displacement and 2021 Global Report on Internal Displacement to exploring the relationship between climate change and displacement. Authors are invited to submit their contributions by 15 August 2020.

What (Else) Should I Read Next?

Guidelines target plastic pollution hotspots | IUCN | 4 August 2020
The National Guidance for Plastic Pollution Hotspotting and Shaping Action is a guide for countries, regions and cities to develop strategic plans for tackling plastic pollution. Developed by UNEP, IUCN, and the Life Cycle Initiative, the guide provides methods for identifying plastic leakage “hotspots”, finding their impacts along the plastic value chain, and prioritizing actions.
We must not wait for the next ammonium nitrate blast – solutions exist to improve safety | UNECE | 7 August 2020
Applying the safety provisions of United Nations legal agreements, tools and guidelines helps to reduce the risks of industrial and chemical accidents. Cross-border cooperation and mutual assistance also play a key role in this regard.
Increased future occurrences of the exceptional 2018–2019 Central European drought under global warming | Hari, V., Rakovec, O., Markonis, Y. et al. | Science Report 10, 12207 (2020) | 6 August 2020
Since the spring 2018, a large part of Europe has been in the midst of a record-setting drought, unprecedented in the last 250 years, according to the studay. Its combined impact on the growing season vegetation activities is stronger compared to the 2003 European drought.
Smoking out polluting SUV vehicles – lessons from the tobacco-control playbook | Bruno Jochum | Geneva Solutions | 6 August 2020
Highly-polluting sports utility vehicles (SUVs) are a threat to public health as well as becoming major drivers of rising climate emissions.