News

10 November 2016

Shipping needs to be more efficient — Q&A with Dirk Vande Velde, Mediterranean Shipping Company’s Chief Sustainable Development Officer

This year’s Review of Maritime Transport, launched on 7 November, highlights that 2015 was another difficult year for the shipping industry, with continued overcapacity and historically low freight rates.

07 November 2016

Seaborne shipping grows at slowest pace since 2009, future remains uncertain

Seaborne shipments passed 10 billion tons for the first time ever in 2015, up 2.1 per cent from 9.8 billion tons the year before, the UNCTAD Review of Maritime Transport 2016 says, noting that this is the slowest pace of growth in the industry since 2009 and that future growth looks uncertain.

02 November 2016

Freight transport growing fast, but needs more climate efficiency

Trade-related freight transport is expected to grow by a factor of 4.3 between 2010 and 2050, but addressing climate change requires that it become more energy efficient, an UNCTAD official said, outlining a series of solutions ahead of an UNCTAD meeting at COP 22 on freight efficiency.

25 September 2016

World Maritime Day 2016

Ahead of the World Maritime Day 2016, UNCTAD notes that world seaborne trade exceeded 10 billion tons in 2015; maritime transport underpins cross-border transport networks linking supply chains and enabling globalized trade.

22 July 2016

Sustainable Freight Transportation for Agenda 2030 discussed at UNCTAD14

Discussing sustainable freight transport is both timely and topical as the world community moves ahead with the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (ASD) and the Paris Climate Change Agreement (COP21).

12 February 2016

Germany to finance an UNCTAD project on transparent trade procedures in West Africa

UNCTAD’s work with West African countries gains momentum thanks to German support for a new capacity-building project for Nigeria, Mali and Benin.

21 December 2015

UNCTAD and TradeMark East Africa sign financing agreement to support trade portals, trade facilitation and trade and gender issues in the East African Community

Following the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding in July 2015, UNCTAD and TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) agreed to deepen their cooperation. With financing from TMEA, the two institutions will jointly implement a number of concrete projects for the benefit of the members of the East African Community (EAC).

05 November 2015

Civil society: UNCTAD has a role to play in mainstreaming sustainability criteria into freight transport systems

Speakers from civil society shared their views on the key messages and takeaways from this year’s Expert Meeting on Transport, Trade Logistics and Trade Facilitation, which focused on making freight transport more sustainable.

28 January 2015

UNCTAD and WTO launch partnership on Integrated Trade Database

UNCTAD Secretary-General and the WTO Director General agreed to provide joint assistance to the WTO members in fulfilling their notification requirements for the WTO Integrated Database.