Glossary of Environmental Science - U

U

• United Nations - an international organisation based in New York and formed to promote international peace, security, and cooperation under a charter signed by 51 founding countries in San Francisco in 1945
• United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – The UNFCCC and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) were established at the 1992 U.N. Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Kyoto Protocol was then formulated by the UNFCCC and sets specific timelines and timetables for reducing industrialized nations’ GHG emissions and allows some international trading in carbon credits. For more information visit:
• upstream – those processes necessary before a particular activity is completed e.g. for a manufactured product this would be the extraction, transport of materials etc. needed prior to the process of manufacture cf. downstream.
• urban Heat Island - the tendency for urban areas to have warmer air temperatures than the surrounding rural landscape, due to the low albedo of streets, sidewalks, parking lots, and buildings. These surfaces absorb solar radiation during the day and release it at night, resulting in higher night temperatures.
• urban metabolism – the functional flow of materials and energy required by cities.