Part of the mission of the UNEP Key Polar Centre is to communicate the importance of the Arctic and Antarctic to the Global community, and to put it on the agenda. Climate change, ozone depletion and long-range transport of pollutants show how interconnected the systems in the world are. In addition, these are the regions where some of these global changes have been detected and identified first.
In addition, a secondary task is to communicate the results of global assessments and outlooks to the Arctic and Antarctic communities, and especially to indigenous peoples.
Major activities
- The Many Strong Voices (MSV) programme is set up as a collaboration to support people in the Arctic as well as in Small Island Developing States on issues related to climate change. These two regions been identified as regions where impacts of climate change are already occurring and where coastal environments and coastal residents are particularly vulnerable to these impacts. Read more on the MSV web-page.
- In addition to research activities specifically in the Polar regions, the International Polar Year (IPY) has an ambition to study the role of the Polar regions in the World, and vice versa. Read more about UNEP Key Polar Centre and the IPY.
- Global Environment Outlook - The polar areas, and their role in relation to global issues, are covered as a region in the UN Environment Programme flagship publication and assessment, reporting on the current status and scenarios for future development.
- GEO Yearbook - An annual review over the changing global environment, with a regional section devoted to the Polar regions, in relation to the world.
- Global Outlook for Ice & Snow - this comprehensive assessement, launched in June 2007, examines the polar regions, and their role in a global perspective.
- Many more activities are listed on the activities page