Mon, Mar 12, 2012 -
The Green Economy: Does it include you?
Share Your Dreams and Aspirations for Rio+20The
Future We WantUnited Nations Conference
on Sustainable Development (Rio+20)Keeping
Track of Our Changing EnvironmentUNEP Green
Economy InitiativeUNEP Green Economy ReportUNEP:
Major Groups & StakeholdersUNEP Children
and Youth Initiative (TUNZA)Whether this
event, coming 20 years after the historic
Rio Earth Summit of 1992, delivers transformational
change will depend on governments, but it
also depends on you.
If the UN Conference
on Sustainable Development 2012 or Rio+20
is to make a difference it needs all citizens
to be on board-from women and indigenous
peoples to farmers, youth, city fathers
and mothers, political leaders and captains
of industry.
It will not happen on
its own.
The official UN slogan
is "The Future We Want"-the future
you want may be many things.
But it cannot be a future
based on the status quo.
A lot has been achieved
in the past two decades from putting the
health of the ozone layer back on track
in order to spare the Earth from the sun's
deadly ultra violet rays to meeting the
poverty related Millennium Development Goal
on access to safe water.
But the fact is that
a lot remains to be done, it is at best
a work in progress.
Far too many of the
dials on the sustainability dashboard are
or are heading into the red including the
buildup of greenhouse gases to the plight
of the world's fisheries and youth unemployment.
According to UNEP's
report, "Keeping Track of our Changing
Environment: From Rio to Rio+20" -
produced as part of UNEP's "Global
Environmental Outlook-5 (GEO 5) series":
Global C02 emissions
continue to rise due to increasing use of
fossil fuels, with 80 per cent of global
emissions coming from just 19 countries.
Yet, the amount of CO2 per US%1 GDP has
dropped by 23 per cent since 1992 underlining
that some decoupling of economic growth
from resource use is occurring.
Meanwhile, the ocean's
pH declined from 8.11 in 1992 to 8.06 in
2007 and 13 per cent of the world's land
surface, 7 per cent of its coastal waters
and 1.4 percent of its oceans are protected.
Food production has
continued to rise steadily at a pace exceeding
population growth, but higher agricultural
yields depend heavily on the use of fertilizers.
And while increasing irrigation infrastructure
can raise crop yields, it puts further pressure
on freshwater availability.
This is happening in
a world of seven billion people-1.5 billion
more than in 1992-set to rise to over nine
billion by 2050.
One of the two overarching
themes of the UN Conference on Sustainable
Development or 'Rio+20' is a Green Economy
in the context of sustainable development
and poverty eradication.
Is there a smarter and
more intelligent way of implementing sustainable
development-one that grows economies but
with positive social and environmental outcomes?
UNEP believes there is.
The other is an institutional
framework for sustainable development-in
short do we have the best structures and
institutional arrangements to deliver a
sustainable century.
It is time to raise
your voice, like the unprecedented voices
raised and actions taken 20 years ago across
all sections of society.
The UN's Department
of Public Information would like to hear
it along with your solutions, vision and
ideas for the Future We Want in order to
inform Rio+20 and the wider world.
Please share your vision
and aspirations for Rio+20 at: http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?menu=117
+ More
World Water Day 2012:
Monitoring Watersheds to Reduce Flood Risks
in Haiti
Port Salut (Haiti),
22 March 2012 - With Haiti's rainy season
looming, efforts are being stepped up to
improve real-time monitoring in the flood-prone
Port-à-Piment watershed in the south
of the country to reduce the disaster risk
for local communities.
Last October, major
floods in the area left some communities
completely isolated and forced to rely on
emergency deliveries of food and medical
supplies via helicopter.
Further Resources
UNEP in HaitiCôte Sud InitiativeWorld
Water Day 2012As Haiti's South Department
is mountainous and its steep slopes are
severely deforested, there is little protection
from heavy rains which flow into the many
rivers, causing flash flooding and sweeping
soil and sediment - and often crops, livelihoods
and personal property - into the sea.
The United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) is among the 15 partners
involved in the transformational Côte
Sud Initiative (CSI), a sustainable development
initiative with a 20 year vision focused
on achieving large-scale lasting change
in Haiti's South Department.
As the existing baseline
data on the rivers and groundwater of Côte
Sud is too limited to inform plans and investments
in water resource management, the CSI partners
are introducing continuous field data collection
to improve understanding of the behaviour
of the river systems and enable improved
flood risk reduction.
Researchers from the
Earth Institute, also a CSI partner, have
led the installation of climate monitoring
stations and rain gauges, piloted a mobile
water quality testing laboratory, and installed
new river monitoring stations in the larger
regional rivers.
The climate monitoring
stations measure rainfall, wind speed and
direction, atmospheric pressure, solar radiation,
relative humidity and temperature, transmitting
real-time data to the internet via satellite.
With data from the newly
installed equipment, the CSI team will be
able to determine how quickly a storm in
the mountains will have an impact on communities
downstream, particularly those who live
in flood-prone areas near sea level or close
to eroding banks.
A collaborative approach
between CSI partners and local and national
authorities, including Haiti's Ministry
of Agriculture, has ensured joint management
of the equipment's installation and shared
understanding of the long-term use of the
data by all partners.
Speaking from Port Salut
on World Water Day (22 March), UNEP's Haiti
Country Programme Manager, Antonio Perera,
said the new monitoring system - a first
for the region - is vitally important in
the development of accurate early warning
systems for residents living in the watershed.
"The monitoring
equipment allows the 'pulse' of water to
be measured as it passes monitoring points
and should contribute to protecting livelihoods,
public safety and health," Mr Perera
said.
During floods, contaminated
water can result in the spread of sickness,
as evidenced by an observed rise in the
number of cholera cases after the floods
last October.
