15.09.2009 Processes and policies governing the reuse and recycling of electronic products need to be standardized worldwide to stem and reverse the growing problem of illegal and harmful e-waste processing practices in developing countries, according to experts behind the world’s first international e-waste academy.

International participants in the first E-Waste Summer School Sept. 6-11, organized by NVMP (the Dutch Foundation for the Disposal of Metal and Electrical Products) and StEP, shared and compared ideas on e-waste management.

Making appropriate recycling technologies available worldwide and standardizing government policy approaches to reuse and recycling could dramatically extend the life of many computers, mobile phones, TVs and similar products and allow for more complete end-of-life harvesting of the highly valuable metals and other components they contain.

"Rapid product innovations and replacements – the shift from analog to newer digital technologies and to flat-screen TVs and monitors, for example – is pushing every country to find more effective ways to cope with their e-waste,” says Ruediger Kuehr of United Nations University, Executive Secretary of a global public-private initiative called Solving the E-Waste Problem (StEP). Based in Bonn, Germany, StEP works with policy makers, industry, academia and other stakeholders.

Download the full press release.

10.06.2009 Unless aggressive measures are taken to halt global warming, the consequences for human migration and displacement could reach a scope and scale that vastly exceed anything that has occurred before. Climate change is already contributing to migration and displacement. All major estimates project that the trend will rise to tens of millions of migrants in coming years. Within the next few decades, the consequences of climate change for human security efforts could be devastating.

These are amongst the key findings of a new report entitled, “In Search of Shelter: Mapping the effects of Climate Change on Human Migration and Displacement”. The report was authored by UN University’s Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), CARE International, and Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN). It was released to the media today during the Bonn Climate Change Talks under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Find the CARE International press release in English and German.

23.4.2009 The United Nations University (UNU) and the Universitätsclub (UNICLUB) Bonn sign an agreement of scientific co-operation on Thursday, 30 April 2009. The agreement initiates the new annual public event series “Dag Hammarskjöld Lecture” addressing different aspects of vulnerability. This occasion will also be the last lecture of the director of UNU-EHS and Vice Rector a.i. in Europe, Prof. Dr. Janos Bogardi.

Download the press release in English or German.

21.4.2009 Former Czech president Václav Havel will be the first recipient of a new German prize honoring commitment to freedom and peaceful understanding. Prof. Janos Bogardi, Director of UNU-EHS and Vice Rectorate a.i. in Europe, is a member of the jury selecting the winner.

On Friday, 24 April 2009 in Bonn, German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, amid 200 high-ranking guests, will present Mr. Havel with the “International Prize for Democracy,” which honors commitment to international understanding, peace and the development of trust amongst nations in respect to the Federal Republic of Germany.

Download the full press release here.

28.11.2008 The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the United Nations University (UNU) signed a memorandum of understanding to work towards a better perception of environmentally induced migration and vulnerability caused by the effects of desertification, land degradation and drought, on 28 November at the UN campus in Bonn.

Find the UNCCD press release here.

22.10.08

At the international conference for “Environment, Forced Migration & Social Vulnerability”, that took place in Bonn from 9-11 October 300 experts and scientists called for immediate and joint action as environmental migration was identified as an increasingly pressing global phenomenon that affects all nations.

The press release can be found in English here and in German here.

For EFMSV media coverage, please click here. To see pictures of the event, please click here.

09.10.08

Experts and officials from almost 80 nations will be attending the largest ever conference on the issue of environmental migration. The conference aims to build a consensus on environmental migrants' definition, support and protection.

On the agenda: measuring environmentally-induced migration – where it is coming from, where it is going, why it has appeared, and how this is benefiting human traffickers.

An English version of the press release can be found here.

22. 09. 2008 Pressekonferenz zum Auftakt der internationalen Konferenz zu Klimawandel und Migration in Bonn

Vom 9. bis 11. Oktober ist UNU-EHS Gastgeber der Konferenz "Environmt, Forced Migration & Social Vulnerability", die am 9. Oktober mit einer Pressekonferenz beginnt. Über 400 Experten aus aller Welt gehen gemeinsam dem Zusammenhang zwischen Klimawandel und Migration auf den Grund. Die Teilnehmer werden anwendbare Konzepte und Strategien entwickeln, um weltweit Betroffenen zu helfen, deren Lebensgrundalgen von extremen Umweltveränderungen bedroht sind.

Vorankündigung mit Details und Anmeldung zur Konferenz hier

December 2007: A growing number of business leaders see climate risk insurance as a tool to help people adapt to some of the unavoidable weather-related risks that accompany climate change. Peter Hoeppe, Head of the GeoRisks Research Department of Munich Re Group, stated “Developing countries are most vulnerable to climate extremes, even though they contribute little to greenhouse gases. These are precisely the areas which have the fewest tools to manage and transfer the risks they face.

You can learn more about the work of UNU in Bonn in a very compact version by downloading the flyer (German)

You can learn more about the work of UNU-EHS in a very compact version by downloading the flyer (English)

BMBF and MIWFT Grant Financial Support

On January 30, 2008 the funding agreement for UNU-EHS has been renewed at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The BMBF grants annually the sum of 500,000 €.

Finanzierung von UNU-EHS für die nächsten 3 Jahre gesichert – BMBF und MIWFT des Landes NRW gewähren Förderung

Am 30. Januar 2008 wird im Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) feierlich der Vertrag über die Fortsetzung der Förderung des Instituts für Umwelt und menschliche Sicherheit der Universität der Vereinten Nationen (UNU-EHS) unterzeichnet. Die Förderung wird für die nächsten drei Jahre, in Höhe von 500,000 € jährlich, vom BMBF gewährt.

31 August 2007 - Book presentation: Can good will contribute to achieve peace in that part of the world by trying to resolve its raging water conflicts? A book entitled ‘WATER RESOURCES IN THE MIDDLE EAST – Israeli-Palestinian Water Issues – From Conflict to Cooperation’, which have been presented to the press on the 31 August 2007 by Dr. Hans Guenter Brauch, a renowned Political Scientist associated to UNU-EHS, is an attempt to cast some light on such a difficult issue. Its editors, Professors Hillel Shuval from Israel and Hassan Dweik from Palestine, have compiled the studies of a host of Palestinian, Israel and international experts offering new perspectives on how to defuse the region’s conflicting interests by considering various geopolitical, environmental, legal, economic, and water resource management approaches.

The United Nations University (UNU) and the Ministry of Education and Research of the Federal Republic of Germany (BMBF) have signed an agreement on the establishment of a UNU Vice Rectorate in Europe (UNU-ViE). UNU-ViE will be located at the UN Campus in Bonn.