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As countries in Asia and the Pacific strive to achieve sustainable development against mounting climate change challenges, engaging youth in digital innovation is recognized as one strategy for…

Photo credit: Freepik/Jcomp Blog

Despite efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change, Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 on Climate Action has seen an overall regression in progress in Asia and the Pacific. A 2023 ESCAP…

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The unique challenges posed to the Asia-Pacific region in the face of climate change, poverty and hunger are well known. The region plays a significant role in climate action as both the largest…

Photo credit: UNFPA Asia and the Pacific Blog

Stories of growing vulnerability make regular headlines across all Asian and Pacific small island developing States (SIDS). With tens of thousands of people displaced every year due to climate and…

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Food system risk is increasing across most countries in the Asia-Pacific region in recent years according to the recently launched INFER Framework
INFER uses 95 indicators to produce food system…

iStock/Nikada Blog

Digital innovation and technology have become an integral part of the way governments, businesses and individuals function, transforming the speed and efficiency of communication, service delivery…

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As we celebrate the World Environment Day this year, it bears repeating that the world is in the midst of an extinction crisis. Asia and the Pacific sees the most rapid and serious decline in…

ESCAP/Aneta Nikolova Blog

The Asia-Pacific region has the world’s highest estimated number of children and youth (ages 24 or younger), counting over 1.7 billion in 2020. This represents 1.7 billion distinct lives and,…

ESCAP/Caio Perim Blog

Stakeholder engagement: The case for a more strategic approach

After the isolating and unkind years of the COVID-19 pandemic, which shrank our networks and reduced social interactions, it was…

ESCAP/Kibae Park Blog

In a few days, global leaders will gather at UN headquarters in New York to make certain we recognize the value of water, appreciate its vitality to life and embrace a visionary Water Action Agenda…

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As countries gathered at the United Nations’ biodiversity conference, or COP15, to agree on the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, policymakers, scientists, and rights advocates reaffirmed…

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The recent climate talks in Egypt have left us with a sobering reality: The window for maintaining global warming to 1.5 degrees is closing fast and what is on the table currently is insufficient to…

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As the Second Global Ocean Conference opens today in Lisbon, governments in Asia and the Pacific must seize the opportunity to enhance cooperation and solidarity to address a host of challenges that…

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The inauguration of 414 km electrified standard gauge Lao-China railway line has a potential to change the dynamics of international transport among the ASEAN member States and beyond.

The railway…

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Transport ministers from across Asia and the Pacific are meeting this week to consider a potentially transformational agenda for how people and goods are moved around the region and across the globe…

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As the leaders of Asia and the Pacific prepare to head to Glasgow for the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), they can be sure that our region will be in the…

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The Covid-19 crisis has upended lives across the globe, wreaking havoc on economies and societies.

Looking beyond the pandemic, climate change poses the single most important threat to the…

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On bikes and on foot, with trikes, pushcarts and more, informal waste pickers are an active and persistent feature of waste management systems across the Asia-Pacific region. Daily waste pickers make…

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The adoption of the Paris Agreement (“PA”) in December 2015 created the opportunity to use legal instruments for climate action. To reach the strategic objective of limiting global warming to 1.5°C,…

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Throughout history, zoonotic diseases (diseases transmitted from animals to humans) have made their marks in human history. For example, the bubonic plague, which was transmitted from rodents, is…