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World at a Crossroads: Asia-Pacific

UN Press Briefing & Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue

SMARTER, GREENER, CLEANER?

Rethinking Economic Risk and Opportunity in the Face of Environmental Challenges and Extreme Events in World’s Most Populous Region

23 May 2017



Mosquito

Pioneering UN Backed, Citizen Led Alliance against Mosquito Borne Diseases Joins Global Fight to Save Lives

Initiative Empowers National Networks, Stakeholders and Governments to Generate and Access Real-time Data and Tools through UN Electronic Platform ‘Environment Live”

Geneva, 8 May, 2017 – A new alliance of citizen-science organizations and UN Environment will be launched, Monday, in an effort to escalate the global fight against mosquito-borne diseases.

The new initiative, launched under the name ‘Global Mosquito Alert’, brings together thousands of scientists and volunteers from around the world to track and control mosquito borne viruses, including Zika, yellow fever, chikungunya, dengue, malaria and the West Nile virus. It is the first global platform dedicated to citizen science techniques to tackle the monitoring of mosquito populations.

The programme is expected to move forward as a collaboration involving the European, Australian and American Citizen Science Associations as well as the developing citizen science community in Southeast Asia.

Agreement to launch the initiative was reached at a two-day workshop that took place in Geneva earlier this month, organized by UN Environment, the Wilson Center’s Science and Technology Innovation Program (STIP), and the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA).

Director of Science at UN Environment, Jacqueline McGlade, said, “The Global Mosquito Alert will offer for the first time a shared platform to allow people on the ground to share their observations and information with a large body of scientists to help them monitor emerging trends in real time and leverage citizen science for the global surveillance and control of disease-carrying mosquitos.”

The Global Mosquito Alert will be supported by a consortium of data and information providers, coordinated through Environment Live, the dynamic UN knowledge platform, designed to collect, process and share the world's best environmental science and research. Built and maintained by UN Environment, the platform provides real-time open data access to policy makers and the general public, using distributed networks, cloud computing, big data and improved search functions.

The consortium includes: Mosquito Alert, Spain; MosquitoWEB Portugal; Zanzamapp in Italy; Muggenradar in the Netherlands; the Globe Observer Mosquito Habitat Mapper, USA/International and the Invasive Mosquito Project USA.

The information displayed on Environment Live will allow managers to mitigate risk and reduce health threats while opening up an opportunity for concerned citizens to contribute their mosquito observations and possible solutions. Citizen data will augment information already available from Government public health sources.

The new consortium has agreed to share current approaches to monitor the spread of key mosquito species and their breeding sites, and to measure the nuisance value of the citizen mosquito experience to support health risk management. The group also agreed to pool knowledge and experience on citizen science programmes to monitor mosquito species using the latest DNA identification techniques.




Emissions Gap Report 2016

The seventh UN Environment Emissions Gap Report provides an up-to-date scientific assessment of the global progress towards the emissions reductions required to be on track to meet the long-term goal of the UNFCCC. In particular, this year the report emphasizes the implications of the Paris Agreement’s strengthened goal of holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C, and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for immediate and longer-term mitigation action.

The report addresses four principal questions:

  1. What is the current status of pre-2020 mitigation action?
  2. What is the gap between the estimated level of global emissions in 2030 if the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions are fully implemented, and the range consistent with the well below 2°C or 1.5°C temperature goal?
  3. What are the possible emissions reduction contributions of non-state action and increased energy efficiency, and how can action in these areas be accelerated to enhance the ambition of nationally determined contributions?
  4. What do we know about the nexus between the Sustainable Development Goals and mitigation, and areas of alignment and conflict between the two?

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY MEDIA