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.