Background Release

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION AT HEADQUARTERS 28 APRIL – 9 MAY,

WITH FOCUS ON IMPLEMENTING 2002 JOHANNESBURG SUMMIT OUTCOME

LOW-LEVEL DU CONTAMINATION IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, UNEP CALLS FOR PRECAUTION

(Reissued as received.)

CONFLICT OR COOPERATION:  PIONEERING ATLAS ON FRESHWATER

CHARTS CHOICES –- WORLD WATER DAY, 22 MARCH

(Reissued as received.)

INDIAN SOLAR MARKET ADVANCES WITH NEW FINANCE FROM UNEP AND BANKS

(Reissued as received.)

BANGALORE/PARIS, 4 March, (UNEP) -- A major new $7.6 million initiative was launched today between the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and two of India's largest banking groups to help 18,000 southern Indian households finance clean and reliable electricity from solar power.

NAIROBI GROUND STATION ESTABLISHED AS PART OF WORLDWIDE

POLLUTION-MONITORING NETWORK

NAIROBI, 27 February (UNEP) -- Nairobi has become a key lynchpin in an international effort to monitor the repair of the ozone layer, the Earth's protective shield, and pollution from events such as forest fires and charcoal burning.

UN ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME-SUPPORTED FILM ‘OCEAN WONDERLAND 3D’ OPENS, AIMS

TO RAISE AWARENESS ABOUT THREATS TO WORLD’S CORAL REEFS

(Reissued as received.)

BOSTON, 11 February (UNEP) -- The Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Klaus Toepfer, is participating in the global launch here in Boston today of an outstanding new underwater 3D film about the world's coral reefs.

ACTION ON CHEMICALS POLLUTION AND SUPPORT FOR AFRICA AGREED

AT END OF GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT MINISTERS MEETING

UNEP's 22nd Governing Council Starts Making

Johannesburg Plan of Implementation Operational

(Reissued as received.)

MARKETING ‘COOL’ LIFE-STYLES KEY TO SELLING CLEAN AND GREEN PRODUCTS

(Reissued as received.)

NAIROBI, 4 February (UNEP) -- Psychologists and human behaviourists are being enlisted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in a pioneering new initiative to save the planet.

GOVERNMENTS REACH AGREEMENT ON NEW UNITED NATIONS TREATY

ON POLLUTION INFORMATION DISCLOSURE

(Reissued as received; delayed in transmission.)

GENEVA, 31 January (UNECE) -- Negotiations on a new international treaty under which companies will be required to publicly disclose information on their output of pollutants came to a successful conclusion in Geneva yesterday evening.

POWER STATIONS THREATEN PEOPLE AND WILDLIFE WITH MERCURY POISONING;

GLOBAL STUDY OF THIS HAZARDOUS HEAVY METAL RELEASED

UNEP's Governing Council 3 to 7 February

(Reissued as received.)

NAIROBI, 3 February (United Nations Environment Programme) -- Mercury poisoning of the planet could be significantly reduced by curbing pollution from power stations, a new report released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) suggests.