Both economic and environmental problems are increasingly global, and so have to be solved globally. The United Nations is crucial to this. Over its three and a half decades of life, UNEP has been at the heart of forming an array of international environmental laws, enabling governments to cooperate across a wide range of issues, from saving the ozone layer to controlling trade in hazardous wastes, from the deserts to the seas. But the greatest test of all – bringing global warming under control – has yet to be met, and this year will be crucial in deciding whether it is.

World Environment Day (WED) is your day — an occasion for the public to demonstrate, by practical and inspiring grass roots action that positive environmental change is alive and kicking in villages, towns and cites across the globe. It also needs to be a Day for transformational thinking and intellectual debate, which is why UNEP commissioned a study on biosequestration — an inelegant word perhaps but one with extremely elegant and far-reaching implications.

Globalisation does not just spread economic ups — and the current deep downs — rapidly across the globe. It can do the same for compelling and transformational ideas. As ministers gather in Nairobi for the Governing Council, two concepts being developed by UNEP are emerging as a powerful antidote to the economic gloom: the ‘Global Green New Deal’ and a transition to a global Green Economy. Together, they o er a way of overcoming short-term economic woes while setting the stage for sustainable growth in the 21st century, with markets rewarding nations and companies that invest in decent employment, innovation, resource e ciency and creativity.