New York, 22 April 2012
- The UN today launched its third annual
'Moving Towards a Climate Neutral UN' report,
detailing the UN's greenhouse gas emissions
for 2010 and it's ongoing efforts to measure
and reduce them.
The report reveals the
UN's 2010 emissions for 54 entities in hundreds
of locations and over 200,000 employees.
It shows that the UN's total greenhouse
gas emissions were 1.8 million tonnes of
CO2 equivalent. This is the same amount
of carbon sequestered annually by 383,795
acres of pine or fir forests, an area the
size of the Faroe Islands.
In the report, launched
on the occasion of Earth Day 2012, the UN
Secretary-General writes:
"The United Nations system is strongly
committed to leading by example and ensuring
that our operations are continuously monitored
and improved - not just in terms of what
we deliver, but also how we deliver. We
are also looking to this year's UN Conference
on Sustainable Development - Rio+20 - to
generate ideas that will energize sustainability
efforts worldwide."
In his foreword to the
report, the Secretary-General highlights
the efforts which are on-going across the
world to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
from UN operations. He also emphasizes the
special importance of renewing efforts in
2012:
The report details a
wide range of actions that have been taken
across the UN system to improve resource
efficiency and cut the organization's emissions.
These include encouraging train journeys
over air travel, providing bicycles for
staff members, installing efficient lighting
systems in UN offices or using e-conferencing
instead of traveling to meetings.
The report shows progress
on implementation of UN's Climate Neutral
Strategy, which was approved by the UN Chief
Executive Board in 2007. The strategy commits
all agencies, funds and programmes to move
towards climate neutrality within the wider
context of greening the UN, and requires
all UN bodies to estimate their greenhouse
gas emissions, undertake efforts to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions and analyze the
cost implications of purchasing carbon offsets.
As part of these efforts,
the Greening the Blue initiativewas launched
in 2010 to raise awareness of the importance
of sustainability throughout the UN system
and to encourage staff members to take an
active role in reducing the organization's
carbon emissions.
The emissions calculations
used in the latest report have been compiled
using internationally recognised guidance
based on the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, a
widely used methodology developed by the
World Resources Institute and the World
Business Council for Sustainable Development.
The UN greenhouse gas
inventory includes emissions from all activities
that are under the direct financial control
of the organization, such as the heating
and cooling of buildings and the travel
of staff members.
How the Blue was Greened
As well as reporting
the UN's greenhouse gas emissions for 2010,
the report highlights recent greening efforts
and details the myriad ways in which UN
organizations and staff continued efforts
to reduce their carbon emissions in 2011.
These include:
Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon opened the New Office Facility in
Nairobi, which houses the headquarters of
the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) and UN-HABITAT and is among the most
energy-efficient buildings in sub-Saharan
Africa. Features include 6,000 square metres
of solar panels, energy saving lighting
and natural ventilation systems. The new
offices are "energy neutral",
which means they generate as much power
(via renewable sources) as they consume
over a year.
Senior officials of
the inter-agency Environment Management
Group approved a Strategic Plan for Sustainability
Management in the UN System, to move UN
organizations towards a consistent, systematic
and cost-effective approach to managing
sustainability. They also acknowledged the
importance of a common structure to support
implementation of the plan.
UN.org - the main website
for the UN system - launched a new page
on sustainability.
The number of Green
Champions and Green Groups across the UN
doubled in 2011, with over 100 volunteers
from across the UN working to make their
offices more sustainable.
UN offices in New York,
Geneva and Nairobi joined millions of people
across the world to mark Earth Hour at 8pm
on 26 March 2011 by switching off their
lights to raise awareness of energy efficiency
Towards a zero carbon
future
Though the UN has come
a long way, the report acknowledges that
much still remains to be done.
"The process of
moving the UN towards climate neutrality
gives us direct experience of the complexities
associated with preparing a large international
organization for a green economy. But we
recognise that this work is vital for delivering
sustainable development, and has the potential
to realise the best of human ingenuity and
creativity", writes Under Secretary
General and Executive Director of UNEP,
Achim Steiner, in the report's preface.
"By championing
a climate neutral UN the various organizations,
agencies, programmes and funds are becoming
part of a global community developing innovative
solutions and sharing lessons learnt on
the challenges and opportunities at hand,"
added Mr. Steiner.
The report concludes
that the UN must establish itself as a pioneer
in working towards establishing a green
economy and doing all it can to move the
world towards sustainable energy.
Rio +20 will be a vital
step in encouraging the world to embrace
a better environment, society and economy.
Further details about the process and the
actions of individual organizations are
available at www.greeningtheblue.org.
Notes to Editors
The UN Climate Neutral
Strategy was approved by the UN Chief Executives
Board for Coordination (CEB) in October
2007.
The first UN greenhouse
gas inventory, Moving Towards a Climate
Neutral UN, was published in December 2009.
The work of implementing
the UN Climate Neutral Strategy is coordinated
by the United Nations Environment Programme.
Data is collected by the Issue Management
Group (IMG) on Environmental Sustainability
Management which includes representatives
from most UN organizations. The IMG reports
to the UN Environment Management Group (EMG)
and is supported by the Sustainable United
Nations facility.
The inventory for 2010 emissions includes
data for 54 UN organizations.
