Environment Ministers
Get to Grips with Greening Global Economy
at 10th Special Session of Governing Council/Global
Ministerial Environment
Forum
Monaco, 22 February 2008 - Close to 140
governments today gave the green light to
evolve the environment programme of the
United Nations (UNEP) into a more efficient,
focused and results-based organization better
able to meet the multiple challenges of
the 21st century.
Environment ministers, gathering in the
Principality of Monaco two months after
they gathered in Indonesia to agree the
Bali Road Map on climate change, approved
a decision authorizing the UNEP Executive
Director to utilize a Medium-Term Strategy
in formulating UNEP's programme of work.
The strategy will focus
the organization's activities across six
cross-cutting thematic priorities aimed
at strengthening and focusing UNEP's response
to climate change but also disasters and
conflicts; ecosystem management; environmental
governance; harmful substances and hazardous
waste and resource efficiency-sustainable
consumption and production.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary
General and UNEP Executive Director, said:
"This decision is a major milestone
in achieving a consensus among the international
community as well as civil society and the
private sector to set new and transformational
directions for this environment programme
of the UN".
He said governments,
meeting in Monaco for the 10th Special Session
of UNEP's Governing Council/Global Ministerial
Environment Forum, had signaled their determination
to address existing and emerging challenges
by empowering the UN body responsible for
the environmental pillar of sustainable
development to move forward.
"I can only applaud
governments and delegates for the constructive
manner in which they engaged on the suite
of issues before them including the Medium-Term
Strategy. We have reached a consensus on
the way forward for UNEP. I believe this
represents growing confidence in our reforms
and growing confidence in UNEP and its ability
to deliver decisive results," said
Mr Steiner.
He said the excellent
planning and organization of the Monaco
meeting had contributed to the success of
the event.
"I must thank the
government of Monaco and in particular its
Head of State, His Serene Highness Prince
Albert II. Prince Albert's commitment, inspiration
and presence here at the GC/GMEF has played
an important part in empowering delegates
to reach such a positive consensus on the
issues before them," said Mr Steiner.
He also thanked the
President of the Governing Council Roberto
Dobles, the Minister of Environment and
Energy of Costa Rica, whose leadership and
steady hand was also key to the gathering's
success.
Mr Dobles said: "Governments
have come to Monaco to attend their environmental
forum in the wake of a 12 month period that
was truly a defining moment for the sustainability
agenda".
"The reports of
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
and the UNEP Global Environment Outlook-4
outlined in graphic detail the challenges
but also the opportunities facing nations,"
he said.
"Here in Monaco
that momentum, and that understanding was
maintained and reflected not only in the
quality of debate on the nexus between environment
and economics but in the decision to authorize
UNEP's Medium Term Strategy. The overall
conclusion was that much needs to be done,
but much is already happening and much more
is possible. I am delighted to have been
part of that evolution," he said.
The theme of the GC/GMEF
was "Globalization and the Environment-Mobilizing
Finance for the Climate Challenge"
and ministers undertook wide-ranging discussions
on how that might be accelerated and the
barriers broken down.
In the President's summary,
many of the more than 100 ministers who
took part agreed that "sufficient investment
capital" is available in the world
to address climate change but that a "sufficiently
high and long-term predictable price for
carbon will be central for mobilizing that
capital for the new economy.
Many also took the view
that in terms of 'climate proofing' vulnerable
economies to the impacts of global warming,
urgency was needed to make the Adaptation
Fund of the Kyoto Protocol operational.
The Clean Development
Mechanism of the Protocol, which may eventually
generate up to $100 billion of investment
flowing North to South into clean and green
energy projects, needed to be "supplemented
by significant contributions from industrialized
countries to meet the envisaged challenge".
Many developing countries
underlined a sea change in thinking about
a transition to a low carbon economy.
"Developing countries
no longer need to be convinced of the advantages
of green growth, but they do need financial
and technical assistance in order to make
the transition to lower carbon economies,"
the President's summary notes.
Another measure of the
transformation in the market place was voiced
by members of the private sector who said
that renewable energy had 'shed its fringe
image' and was now a mainstream business.
However, there remained a 'lack of activity'
on poorer developing countries including
in Africa.
Many delegates stressed
that "appropriate finance" that
matched the ability of the poor, particular
in the area of cleaner energy, was needed
and that public finance may be needed to
stimulate local lending.
The importance of UNEP
and the United Nations in playing a role
in assisting developing countries to establish
the right policies, institutional frameworks
and to build capacity to access finance
was also recognized.
At the meeting, the
governments emphasized their concern that
all countries, in particular developing
countries, face increased risks from the
negative effects of climate change, and
stressed the importance of addressing adaptation
needs.
Governments also welcomed
the fourth Global Environment Outlook report,
which was launched in October 2007, expressing
concern over the evidence of unprecedented
environmental changes, and encouraging timely
action to prevent, mitigate and adapt to
such changes. The progress that has been
made on several fronts to address the challenges
outlined in the report was welcomed by governments,
who also encouraged greater sharing of lessons
learned and best practices.
Finally, in order to
maintain the spirit of international solidarity
and commitment generated by the Bali Roadmap,
governments requested the UN Economic and
Social Council to consider making 2010-2020
an International Decade for addressing Climate
Change.
Meanwhile the meeting
also show-cased the latest economic and
scientific developments through a series
of reports, publications and side-events
including the impact of soot and the Atmospheric
Brown Cloud on the climate and on the shielding
of sunlight from the ground-so called global
'dimming".
Other ground-breaking
reports included the UNEP Year Book and
its glimpse of a 'green economy' as a result
of investments in new and cleaner technologies;
a preliminary report with the International
Labour Organization and trades unions on
'green jobs' and a sobering study by scientists
on the multiple impacts of pollution, alien
invasive species and climate change on fisheries-In
Dead Water.
Notes to Editors
Documents related to the 10th Special Session
of the UNEP Governing Council/Global Ministerial
Environment Forum will be posted at http://www.unep.org/gc/gcss-x/
Press releases relating to the meeting can
be found at www.unep.org/newscentre
Monaco, the Host Country's web site is at
http://www.unep2008.gouv.mc/pnue/wwwnew.nsf/HomeGb
Nick Nuttall, UNEP Spokesperson and Head
of Media
