Tag: UN

Bermuda will create an ocean plan to sustainably manage and improve ocean industries like fishing and tourism. It also aims to preserve 90,000 square kilometres of Bermuda’s waters in fully protected areas. In these areas, no fishing, extraction, or destruction of any kind will be allowed.

Private companies are more and more interested in maintaining and improving the health of the ocean, a new report published by the United Nations Global Compact says. The report was developed in consultation with 300 representatives of business, civil society and academia, and urges that a healthy marine environment is not only necessary for many companies' long-term operations, but it can also offer significant business opportunities as well.

On the sidelines of the Empowering Women in the Maritime Community Conference in early April, the World Maritime University (WMU) and the Government of Canada jointly announced a major research project on the theme 'Empowering Women for the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development'.

The UN Global Compact will hold a High Level Meeting on Ocean as part of Nor-Shipping 2019, gathering politicians, maritime and ocean industry executives, UN representatives, NGOs and other key stakeholders in Oslo. UNGC will also launch its new report 'Global Goals - Ocean Opportunities', in which it assesses a multi-stakeholder approach to how ocean industries can meet the UN Sustainability Goals.

The UN Global Compact has set ten principles for companies to integrate them into strategies, policies and procedures, in a bid to establish a culture of integrity. Corporate sustainability starts with a company’s value system and a principles-based approach to doing business.

Due to unresolved trade tensions, high international policy uncertainty and declining business confidence, the UN announced on May 21, a broad-based slowdown in the global economy and cut its growth predictions. UN also informed that a weaker global economy puts essential investments at risk. Developing countries could feel the most impacts.

Reuters reports that countries are close to an agreement on tighten controls on trade in plastic waste, which would make it harder for the US, as a leading exporter, to ship unsorted plastic to emerging Asian economies for disposal.

Developing countries that depend on commodities must seek diversification strategies to mitigate the adverse effects of price volatility in international markets, explained speakers at UNCTAD’s meeting of experts on commodities and development, on 15 April at the UN’s European headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Today 67% of developing countries depend on commodities, a situation that has changed little in the last two decades.

During this week’s ministerial meeting in Iceland, the Nordic ministers for the environment agreed to send a joint letter to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), to address the importance of setting the bar high in order to fulfill the new targets that will take effect after 2020.

Container throughput in ports of Latin America and the Caribbean increased by 7.7% in 2018 compared to 2017, according to data provided by UN ECLAC. This analysis is based on the performance of a sampling of 31 countries and 118 ports and port areas in the region.