Quarterly Report to the 149th Meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives: Seventh Issue - December 2019 to January 2020

This quarterly report updates the Committee of Permanent Representatives on significant political and regional developments related to UNEP’s work as well as on management issues in UNEP. It covers the period from 1 December 2019 to 31 January 2020. Highlights: ➡ Environmental catastrophes over the last few months come on the backdrop of COP 25 and are some of the all too frequent reminders of the urgent need for radical action and transformative change to safeguard a healthy environment for future generations. ➡ Worldwide, the consequences of environmental mismanagement are acknowledged as an issue of major concern. The World Economic Forum’s The Global Risks Report 2020, which identifies the top threats facing our world, places environmental risks in all top five positions by likelihood and in three of the top five positions by impact. ➡ The Emissions Gap Report 2019, released for COP 25, once again highlights the need for much higher ambition and shows a fast-closing window of opportunity. It calls for dramatic strengthening of the nationally determined commitments in 2020: countries must increase these ambitions threefold to achieve the well below 2°C goal and more than fivefold to achieve the 1.5°C goal.