Environment & Energy

Featured publications

AAP: Voices from the Ground 16 Apr 2013
Every Drop Matters Volume I 01 Mar 2013

Towards Transformational Change 17 Mar 2013
Synthesis of National Reports for Rio+20 02 Jan 2013

Most recent publications

Results: Tunisia 15 May 2013
Africa Adaptation Programme: Capacity building experiences 16 Apr 2013

Issue Brief: Toward Ocean Recovery 25 Apr 2013
Africa Adaptation Programme Experiences: Gender and Climate Change 16 Apr 2013

View More Publications

Fast Facts: UNDP and Climate Change in Africa

Africa will be the continent hardest hit by climate change because it faces more severe climatic effects than other regions, its economies rely on climate-dependent sectors such as agriculture, and its capacities to cope and adapt are generally limited. With its presence in every African country more

Fast Facts: Universal Energy Access

Some 1.4 billion people have no access to electricity and a billion more only have access to unreliable electricity networks. About 3 billion people rely on solid fuels (traditional biomass and coal) to meet their basic needs. Access to modern energy services for cooking and heating, lighting and more

Fast Facts: Waste Management

The inadequate management of chemicals and waste can pose serious threats to human health and the environment and undermine economic and social development. At greatest risk are the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people. more

Fast Facts: Water Supply and Sanitation

UNDP works to bring about the necessary improvements in water governance to scale up water and sanitation services for the poor. Through its MDG GoAL WaSH initiative, the Water Governance Programme (WGP) focuses on coordinated country assistance by UN and other development partners and inclusion of more

Fighting Corruption in the Water Sector

This publication is part of a series of UNDP-sponsored studies that present methods, tools and good practices to map corruption risks, develop strategies and sustain partnerships to address challenges and tackle corruption in the education, health and water sectors. They complement UNDP’s MDG more

Financial Sustainability Scorecard for National Systems of PA's - 2010

The purpose of the scorecard is to assist governments, donors and NGOs to investigate and record significant aspects of a PA financing system – its accounts and its underlying structural foundations – to show both its current health and status and to indicate if the system is holistically moving more

Financial Sustainability of Protected Areas in Latin America and the Caribbean

The report compares and aggregates official financial data and qualitative insights about the health of Protected Area (PA) financial sustainability for 20 Latin American and Caribbean countries. While the findings reveal the level of financial gap faced in the region, they also show that reducing more

Finanzas Públicas y Cambio Climático en México

Este trabajo presenta un modelo econométrico, simulando 3 aspectos fundamentales en la relación entre cambio climático y finanzas more

Flyer for Boots on the Ground Strategic Initiative

This flyer outlines some of the work being done under UNDP's Strategic Initiative to Address Climate Change in Least Developed Countries (LDCs), which works with 26 low-income countries, including 23 LDCs, onto build capacity on climate change policy. more

Forest Carbon Accounting: Overview & Principles

This report reinforces UNDP's capacity building efforts by presenting the main principles, practices and challenges of carbon accounting in the forestry sector. It highlights the historic, current and future needs for forest carbon accounting; principles and good practice; the process of forest more

Formulating Climate Change Scenarios

This guidebook offers project managers and decision-makers, who are working with a team of scientific and technical experts, a framework for the development of a prospective range of climate scenarios in their regions. It aims to empower project managers and decision-makers to engage in more

From Ridge to Reef: Water, Environment, and Community Security

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is the largest financial institution with the mandate, ability, and experience to address current and future challenges to shared freshwater and marine systems. The publication explores a handful of the GEF International Waters projects that have already more

From Transition to Transformation

This report was launched at the first Global Human Development Forum which brought together high-level experts from governments, corporations, civil society and international organizations to examine the global policy changes required to ensure a sustainable future for people today and for more

From Transition to Transformation: sustainable and inclusive development in Europe and Central Asia

The report, supported by 13 UN agencies, calls for a transformation to integrated policy making, where social equity, economic growth and environmental protection are approached together. It is a contribution of governments, experts, researchers and development practitioners ahead of the ‘Rio+20’ more

Frontline Observations on Climate Change and Sustainability of Large Marine Ecosystems

The growing risks and impacts of climate change and the accompanying loss of ecosystem services require the world to urgently invest in a new development paradigm. As the UN’s global development network, UNDP recognizes the increasing urgency of mainstreaming climate change into sustainable more

Fuel to Change - Overcoming Vulnerability to Rising Oil Prices

The report examines how oil price rises are affecting the Asia-Pacific region’s poorest people. It proposes establishing an Asia-Pacific Compensatory Oil Finance Facility for LDC's and small island developing states to: help tide poorer countries over the immediate balance of payments or fiscal more

Gender Adaptation Fund

This short flyer explores the gender dimensions of climate finance mechanisms, focusing on the Adaptation Fund, its creation and its mandate. It addresses the challenges of designing and implementing climate change adaptation programmes in vulnerable countries and provides status to date on gender more

Gender Dimensions of Intellectual Property and Traditional Medicinal Knowledge

The paper outlines the debates on intellectual property (IP) protection vis-à-vis other systems for protecting the communal nature of traditional medicinal plant knowledge. The paper uses a gender lens to understand how IP and trade policies affect disempowered peoples, particularly women and men more

Gender Dimensions of the Adaptation Fund

The enormous cost of adaptation combined with vulnerable countries’ limited resources make designing and implementing climate change adaptation programmes extraordinarily challenging. Though capacity and knowledge baselines vary significantly among and within countries and regions, many women more

Gender Dimensions of the Clean Development Mechanism

Established by the Kyoto Protocol, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) has two concurrent objectives: to reduce emissions and promote sustainable development. A market-based mechanism, the CDM generates funds through investments in emissions-reduction projects in developing countries. Upon more

Fast Facts

Environment, Energy and UNDP

UNDP helps countries strengthen their capacity to address environmental and energy challenges at global, national and community levels, by seeking out and sharing best practices, providing innovative policy advice and linking partners through projects that help people in developing countries build sustainable livelihoods.

Our work on Environment and Energy

UNDP's Annual Report

The Sustainable Future We Want

UNDP has decades of concrete development experience in countries ranging from fragile States to middle-income countries like Brazil and Indonesia. This, combined with our four focus areas, make us uniquely situated and qualified to answer the UN’s call for a better and more sustainable future.

View all Annual Reports

Human Development Data

Human Development Index (HDI) figures are available as part of the Google Public Data Explorer tool.

Knowledge Exchange

Teamworks is UNDP's knowledge sharing exchange that allows development professionals to gain and share knowledge

Custom Queries

Explore UNDP's extensive research and publications library through this advanced search

Many of UNDP's relationships with countries and territories on the ground exceed 60 years. Find details on our successes and ongoing work.

Regional Presence

United Nations Development Programme