Six ‘smart’ LED benches installed by a joint UN collaboration at the 2015 edition of the Sarajevo Film Festival have borne fruit in style.

Over the past year, 87.84 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy was produced by the benches’ solar panels, including 65.14 kWh used to recharge mobile phones 17,520 times, saving 444kg of CO2 emissions, it emerged during the festival’s Enviro Day on 17 August.

The multifunctional seats were installed at the 2015 edition of Enviro Day by UN Environment and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the Bosnian capital and make the country only the second in the world to benefit from this type of technology.

Together with classmates, 20-year-old Croatian Ivan Mrvoš built the ‘solar e-bench,’ which allows users to recharge mobile phones, create a wifi hotspot area and use a streetlight. The LED panels furthermore power air sensors, allowing users to access information on air pollution levels in that area.

“This installation, however small scale it may look, is a symbol showing that when you bring innovation into practice on the ground, the people like it and use it, while being reminded of the importance of cleaner air” said Jan Dusik, UN Environment's Director for Europe.

During 2015, safe levels of particulate matter (PM10) in Sarajevo were exceeded for a total of 100 days, while nitrogen oxide (NOx) levels were unsafe for 18 days, Enis Omerčić of the Hydrometeorlogical institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina revealed during a panel discussion held as part of Enviro Day. Meanwhile, the number of people suffering from chronical respiratory diseases has steadily increased in Bosnia and Herzegovina and has now reached 176 cases for every 10,000 people, said Mirza Palo of the World Health Organisation.

Installation of the solar benches, which are made by the Steora company based in Croatia, was made possible thanks to funding provided by Sweden to UNDP.

Two cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina have meanwhile joined the UN Environment -led Global District Energy in Cities Initiative. Banja Luka and Sarajevo form part of the programme, which supports national and municipal governments in their efforts to develop, retrofit or scale up district energy systems - one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

A project launched by Banja Luka with UN Environment in January will modernize the city’s heating network and could reduce fuel consumption by 27 per cent, leading to a reduction of 20,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year and €4.5m in fuel cost savings.

The main culprits behind Bosnia's air pollution are emissions from traffic, household stoves and local heating using heavy fuel oil, and high-intensity energy used to power industry. Air pollution has since been identified as one of the two greatest health threats in the pan-European region together with climate change by UN Environment’s sixth Global Environment Outlook report.

For more information on UN Environment’s work in Bosnia and Herzegovina please click here or write to piercarlo.sandei@unvienna.org

A television campaign commissioned by UN Environment, showing how organic food is the natural choice for people and the environment has been crowned a winner at the Deauville Green Awards.

The series of ads feature a doe, badger and rabbit choosing organic over conventional food and was prized with the Golden Green award under the competition’s Responsible consumption and eco-labels category. The ads were produced for UN Environment by the Geneva-based Pointprod company.

The Deauville Green Awards is an international festival involving films, documentaries and ads on sustainable development and ecology assessed by an international jury of communication and environment specialists. The fifth edition of the event took place in the Normandy town on 16-17 June.

Choosing to eat organic means opting for a healthier and more varied diet, and helps look after the environment - organic produce is free of synthetic or chemical fertilisers, is almost free of antibiotics and helps foster natural biodiversity.

The videos were launched in the framework of the 'Greening Economies in the Eastern Neighbourhood' (EaP-GREEN) programme, which is funded by the EU and implemented jointly by UN Environment, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation.

UN Environment’s work on organic agriculture in the EU's Eastern Partnership countries includes expanding domestic agri-food supply chains and fostering trade exchanges, training farmers to switch from conventional farming and awareness-raising campaigns. UN Environment has furthermore given organic producers a foot-up by supporting their participation in the major organic trade fair Biofach, leading to sales agreements being reached worth millions of euros.

To view the set of ads in English or Moldovan please click here.

Two cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina have meanwhile joined the UN Environment -led Global District Energy in Cities Initiative. Banja Luka and Sarajevo form part of the programme, which supports national and municipal governments in their efforts to develop, retrofit or scale up district energy systems - one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

A project launched by Banja Luka with UN Environment in January will modernize the city’s heating network and could reduce fuel consumption by 27 per cent, leading to a reduction of 20,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year and €4.5m in fuel cost savings.

The main culprits behind Bosnia's air pollution are emissions from traffic, household stoves and local heating using heavy fuel oil, and high-intensity energy used to power industry. Air pollution has since been identified as one of the two greatest health threats in the pan-European region together with climate change by UN Environment’s sixth Global Environment Outlook report.

For more information write to isabelle.valentiny@unep.org

Erik Solheim has spelled out his ideas and priorities as the new UN Environment Executive Director during his first official visit to Geneva on, 30 August.

Cancer is responsible for seven million premature deaths each year – about the same number as those that die from air pollution, Mr Solheim pointed out. Such examples help bring home the urgency of fighting environmental issues – an essential part of empowering people to drive change, he believes.

UN Environment must work more closely with the private sector, work to end environmental degradation as a driver of war and make a real and practical difference to people’s lives on the ground, he told journalists and Geneva ambassadors. The new Executive Director’s policy priorities will meanwhile be biodiversity, oceans, sustainable cities, finance, climate and migration.

The organisation can fulfil its mission by not only spurring positive change in the private sector, but also by praising it when it takes place, Mr Solheim believes - giving the example of French oil firm Total ruling out Arctic oil drilling, due to climate change.

“At the very minimum we will be ready to go into partnerships with companies who either behave well or are ready to change,” he told journalists, underlining that “we should not see working with companies as different to working with civil society or governments”.

“Environmental degradation is a strong amplifier for wars,” Mr Solheim also noted during an executive briefing held for country missions later that day, signalling his will to break the link between land degradation and war. There will always be a link between these?

Furthermore, “I will do my best to ensure that everything we do for the environment is with the aim of reducing poverty,” Mr Solheim pledged in Geneva – a city described by the new UN Environment Head as being a “second hub” for the organisation’s work.

A Norwegian national, Mr Solheim has previously held the combined portfolio of Minister for International Development and of the Environment for his country and worked as a negotiator during the peace process in Sri Lanka between 1998 and 2005. He most recently was Chair of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Mr Solheim was elected on a four-year term as head of UN Environment on 13 May 2016 by the UN General Assembly. He succeeds Achim Steiner, who led the organisation from 2006.

To view a recording of Mr Solheim’s briefing with the press click here . For more details please write to isabelle.valentiny@unep.org

Parties to the Montreal Protocol have come closer to a deal to further control potent global warming-inducing chemicals; the move that would provide a powerful push to help achieve the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Thanks to the Protocol, countries have already eradicated chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and are on track to eradicate hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HFCs) – climate-harming chemicals found in refrigeration, air conditioning and foams. HFCs are often used as a replacement for CFCs and have a global warming effect up to thousands of times greater than carbon dioxide.

At meetings held in Vienna on 15-23 July, the 197 parties to the Montreal Protocol considered potential freeze dates for HFCs and schedules for reducing their production and consumption in both developed and developing countries, and forwarded them for further discussion in future meetings scheduled for October.

Countries agreed on a menu of solutions to specific challenges. They furthermore agreed on a study to examine the climate benefits of a phase-down of HFCs and to examine the finance needed to enact it.

Action taken under the Protocol – which is administered by UN Environment - has enabled the ozone layer to heal by an area equivalent to the size of India, UN Environment Deputy Executive Director Ibrahim Thiaw told delegates during his opening statement in Vienna.

“It is no accident that the Protocol is quoted again and again as an example of what can be achieved when 197 parties put their minds to it,” he noted.

Yet while they do not harm the ozone directly, the most commonly used HFCs hold a global warming potential that is thousands of times greater than carbon dioxide.

In November 2015, countries therefore agreed on a ‘Dubai Pathway’, whereby solutions would first be generated to challenges before an amendment to curb HFCs can be finalised.

Countries are “well on their way” to achieving “a very big win” in the fight against climate change, said US State Secretary John Kerry at the meeting.

The Paris Agreement commits states to limiting the increase in global temperature, compared to pre-industrial levels, to two degrees by 2100 and to pursue efforts to limit this increase to 1.5 degrees. An amendment to the Montreal Protocol to phase down HFCs could save a potential 0.4 degrees of global warming by the end of the century.

For further information please click here or write to mark.grassi@unep.org or dan.tengo@unep.org