The UNEP Year Book 2012 depicts the status of key environmental indicators, shows that we have been experiencing an exceptional level of ecological extremes and highlights the benefits of soil carbon and decommissioning nuclear power plants.

In this new report UNEP argues that the ecological health and economic productivity of marine and coastal ecosystems can be boosted by shifting to a more sustainable economic paradigm that taps their natural potential - from generating renewable energy and promoting eco-tourism, to sustainable fisheries and transport.

The tiny fraction of freshwater not bound up in ice sheets and glaciers comprises only a very small fraction of total global water volume (about 0.79 %). Global use of that freshwater, however, has been growing at roughly twice the rate of global population for the past century.

This report examines the economic role of cities. It illustrates the important contributions of cities to national economic development and poverty reduction. It looks at the agglomeration economies, city clusters, city regions and mega city regions.

This Guidebook, which is based on the outcome of a UNEP pilot project that was carried out in three South East Asian countries in 2009-2010 - Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam - is intended to serve as a tool to help decision-makers and legal drafters to incorporate measures for adapting to the adverse impacts of climate change into their national s

The objective of this tool is to inform and capacitate local government officials so as to assist them in initiating, developing and managing Clean Development Mechanism and Verified Emission Reduction projects within their cities, towns or regions.

Women are often in the frontline in respect to the impacts of a changing climate. Globally the world is seeing increasingly frequent droughts and floods which are having economic but also profound social consequences. The women and people of Asia are currently at greatest risk with over 100 million people affected in this region annually.

Scientific evidence and new analyses demonstrate that control of black carbon particles and tropospheric ozone through rapid implementation of proven emission reduction measures would have immediate and multiple benefits for human well-being.

The UNEP has released a collection of capacity building success stories titled "Ready, Willing and Able: Empowering Countries to Meet the Climate Challenge." According to UNEP, the publication aims to illustrate that important local climate change activities are possible and are happening.

This report addresses the mitigation of short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs) and its key role in air pollution reduction, climate protection and sustainable development. SLCFs are substances in the atmosphere that contribute to global warming and have relatively short lifetimes in the atmosphere.