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.

Commission on Sustainable Development

Eleventh Session

1^st Meeting (AM)

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION ELECTS OFFICERS FOR ELEVENTH SESSION,

TO BE HELD AT HEADQUARTERS 28 APRIL - 9 MAY

SWITCH TO UNLEADED FUEL ‘IN SIGHT’ FOR AFRICA, ACCORDING TO NEW

UN ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME REPORT

NAIROBI, 22 January (UNEP) -- An international effort to phase out lead, the health-hazardous heavy metal, from petrol is accelerating as increasing numbers of African countries switch to unleaded fuel.

Launch of the International

Year of Freshwater 2003

FRESHWATER ISSUES AT ‘HEART OF HUMANKIND’S HOPES FOR PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT’,

SAYS DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL AT EVENT TO LAUNCH INTERNATIONAL YEAR

12 December 2002

Leading manufacturers and Basel Convention to cooperate on environmentally

sound management of end-of-life mobile phones

(Reissued as received.)

UNITED NATIONS LAUNCHES INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF FRESHWATER

TO GALVANIZE ACTION ON CRITICAL WATER PROBLEMS

$573 MILLION IN FUNDING AGREED FOR CUTTING DEVELOPING COUNTRY CFCs BY 50 PER CENT

(Delayed for technical reasons.)

ROME, 29 November (UNEP) -- Negotiators from some 140 governments have adopted a $573 million funding package to halve the consumption and production in developing countries of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) -- the leading destroyer of the stratospheric ozone layer -- by the year 2005 (relative to a baseline of average 1995-1997 levels).

                                                                  UNEP/129

ADAPTION TO CLIMATE CHANGE CRITICAL FOR FOOD-INSECURE COUNTRIES

(Reissued as received.)

ASIAN GOVERNMENTS LAUNCH ACTION TO TACKLE ‘E-WASTES’

TIANJIN (China), 21 November (UN Information Service) -- Officials from eight Asian governments are meeting here under the auspices of the Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal to seek solutions to the growing deluge of electrical and electronic wastes -- popularly known as “e-wastes”.