|
|
Ensuring environmental sustainability
One United Nations (Ch 2, para 56)
56. For the effort to ensure environmental sustainability, the Millennium Declaration sets specific targets, encompassing access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation and improvements in the conditions of life of slum dwellers. In this area, the UN system draws guidance from the principles of sustainability adopted at Rio and reinforced at Johannesburg and from the overall commitment to action embodied in the Millennium Declaration’s targets for integrating these principles into country policies and programmes and for reversing the loss of environmental resources. UN organizations are working together across a span of issues, from helping to forge international agreements on the environment to addressing specific environmental challenges, such as freshwater, water and sanitation, energy, oceans and coastal areas, and consumption and production patterns.
One United Nations (Box 2.17)
| Box 2.17: Working together for environmental sustainability |
The Environmental Management Group (EMG), established by the UN General Assembly in 1999 and led by UNEP, is identifying and addressing environmental and human settlements issues that require enhanced cooperation among UN organizations and with non-UN actors. The focus is on environmental education, harmonization of national reporting, environmental governance and environment-related capacity building. |
UNCTAD is working closely with UNEP, UNDP, the regional commissions and WTO to develop a comprehensive programme for addressing the trade-environment-development nexus. An example of this collaborative effort is the UNEP-UNCTAD Capacity Building Task Force on Trade, Environment and Development, which is focusing on the particular situations and requirements of small island developing states. |
One United Nations (Ch 2, paras 57 - 59)
57. In 2003, CEB adopted a set of approaches and guidelines to orient the system’s follow-up to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). The aim was to strengthen system-wide support for the implementation of WSSD outcomes and effectively to integrate them into the follow-up processes for other relevant UN conferences. In so doing, CEB strove to maximize the impact of the WSSD outcomes on progress across the MDGs.
58. As part of this process and under the aegis of CEB’s agencies, inter-agency collaborative arrangements for the follow-up to WSSD—dealing with water and sanitation (UN-Water), energy (UN-Energy), oceans and coastal areas (UN-Oceans), and patterns of consumption and production—were established or strengthened.
59. UN-Water’s World Water Assessment Programme is an integral part of the UN system’s contribution to the realization of the Millennium Declaration commitments to “halve, by the year 2015, the proportion of the world’s people who are unable to reach, or to afford, safe drinking water” and to “stop the unsustainable exploitation of water resources, by developing water development strategies at the regional, national and local levels, whichpromote both equitable access and adequate supplies.” The main product of the World Water Assessment Programme is the World Water Development Report. Released on World Water Day 2003, its first edition, “Water for People, Water for Life,” provided an initial assessment of progress towards achieving water-related goals in the context of the larger pursuit of sustainable development. The report’s second edition will be released on World Water Day 2006.
One United Nations (Box 2.18)
| Box 2.18: Mobilizing the UN system for freshwater resources |
The sustainable management of freshwater resources has long constituted an international goal from the Mar del Plata Action Plan of the 1977 UN Conference on Water to the Millennium Summit, and to the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development. Only recently, however, have experts recognized the need for a comprehensive assessment of the world's freshwater as the basis for more integrated water management. The World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) was established in 2000 that year as a collective response of the UN system to assist countries in reaching their commitments in this area.
Hosted by UNESCO, UN-Water's World Water Assessment Programme involves 23 UN organizations, along with convention secretariats, donors and other partner entities from outside of the UN system The programme consists of:
- The World Water Development Report (WWDR), a periodic publication that reviews the world's freshwater resources, provides decision makers with information tools for integrated water resources management and with case studies that illustrate different scenarios of how challenges are being faced in different parts of the world;
- A capacity-building component, designed to promote the ability of governments to conduct their own assessment; and
- A Water Information Network and Water Portal, which allows communication with governments and water-related non-governmental groups, and facilitates capacity-building and awareness-raising about water.
|
One United Nations (Ch 2, para 60)
60. Efforts to manage forests and combat deforestation and to improve energy efficiency and access are two other key dimensions of sustainable development, which the UN system is increasingly approaching as common priorities for both analysis and operations.
One United Nations (Box 2.19)
| Box 2.19: Managing forests and combatting deforestation |
With its resolution 2000/35, ECOSOC created a unique mechanism to support the work of the intergovernmental United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF): the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF). CPF is a voluntary and informal cooperation of 14 organizations, representing UN organizations and agencies (FAO, UNDP and UNEP); convention secretariats (the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change); international research organizations (the Centre for International Forestry Research, the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations and the World Agroforestry Centre);intergovernmental organizations (the International Tropical Timber Organization and the World Conservation Union); financial institutions (the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility); and the secretariat of the Forum itself. CPF reports its progress to and seeks guidance from the Forum. Based on the comparative advantages of its members, CPF contributes to the policy deliberations of the Forum and promotes and facilitates sustainable forest management worldwide.
Collaboration among CPF members covers a wide range of issues, including: national forest programmes and action plans; forest law enforcement; reduced-impact logging; community-based fire management; protection of unique types of forest and fragile ecosystems; forest and landscape restoration; rehabilitation and afforestation in low forest cover countries and areas affected by the Indian Ocean Tsunami; monitoring, assessing and reporting; and financial mechanisms. Some of its operational achievements include:
- the Sourcebook on Funding Sustainable Forest Management, which makes information accessible through an on-line searchable database;
- the Task Force on Streamlining Forest-Related Reporting, which aims to reduce the reporting burden on countries;
- the Initiative on Forest-related Definitions, which serves to foster a common understanding of terms and definitions; and
- the Global Forest Information Services, which provides a global internet-based platform for forest information.
|
One United Nations (Box 2.20)
| Box 2.20: Collaboration on energy |
An inter-agency network on energy, UN-energy promotes coherence in the UN system's activities in the field of energy as an integral part of CEB's effort to provide a multi-disciplinary response to WSSD and to the Millennium Summit. UN-Energy is open to all UN entities, agencies and programmes working in the area of energy. Current activities focus on promoting energy access and on energy efficiency and renewable energy, both within the framework of decisions taken by WSSD and by the ECOSOC Commission on Sustainable Development. |
One United Nations (Ch 2, para 61)
61. A key cross-sectoral issue for the UN system is climate change and its implications for achieving the Millennium Declaration’s objectives of ensuring environmental sustainability and protecting the ecosystem. Individually and collaboratively, UN system organizations are working to raise awareness, to help forge international agreements, to carry out analytical work and to assist countries in mitigating the effects of climate change.
One United Nations (Box 2.21)
| Box 2.21: Coordinating responses to climate change |
The 2001 assessment report of the WMO-UNEP Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that, if carbon dioxide levels are not significantly reduced, the Earth's average temperature will rise by as much as 5.8 degrees centigrade by 2100. The adverse impacts expected on human health, food security, economic activity, natural resources, physical infrastructure and migration patterns could put the achievement of the MDGs at risk, especially among the poorest in developing countries, who often live in environmentally vulnerable areas. The recently released Arctic Climate Impact Assessment reported that the region is warming far more rapidly than previously known-at nearly twice the rate as the rest of the globe.(13) Greenhouse gases are projected to make it warmer still, resulting in further large-scale melting of permafrost. According to WMO, 2004 was the fourth hottest year on record. New figures released by Munich Re, a leading re-insurance company and a UNEP Finance Initiative member, projected that in the first ten months of 2004, natural disasters will cost the insurance industry approximately $35 billion, up from $16 billion in 2003. Yet, steps taken towards the "required reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases" remain inadequate.
Major efforts are underway at the intergovernmental level to address climate change. The Kyoto Protocol entered into force in February 2005. The Buenos Aires Conference (COP10) in December 2004 adopted measures to help countries prepare for climate change; furthered cooperation among the Secretariats for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC); and welcomed the Implementation Plan for the Global Observing System for Climate (GCOS) in Support of the UNFCCC.
UN organizations continue to deal, individually and collaboratively, with aspects of climate change, including energy, agriculture, cleaner production, human health and forests. They are also undertaking collaborative projects through the Global Environment Facility (GEF)- sponsored by UNEP, UNDP and the World Bank-which aims to reduce the risks of global climate change, while helping to provide energy for sustainable development.
|
One United Nations (Ch 2, para 62)
62. In the Millennium Declaration, world leaders resolved to intensify cooperation to reduce the number and effects of natural and man-made disasters. This commitment followed the greater awareness engendered by the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (1990–1999) and by the first World Conference on Disaster Reduction (Yokohama, 23–27 May 1994).
One United Nations (Box 2.22)
| Box 2.22: Coordinating responses to natural disasters |
The International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR)
The International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) builds on the achievements of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction and facilitates disaster reduction efforts worldwide. ISDR combines the strengths of key actors through two groups: the Inter-Agency Task Force on Disaster Reduction, which is the principal body for the development of disaster reduction policy and consists of 25 UN, international, regional and civil society organizations; and the Inter- Agency Secretariat of the ISDR, which serves as the UN system's focal point for promoting coordination of disaster reduction activities in the socio-economic, humanitarian and development fields, as well as for supporting policy integration. The January 2005 World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Japan, set out an action plan for 2005 to 2015 and adopted a common statement on the Indian Ocean disaster.
The January 2005 World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Japan, set out an action plan for 2005 to 2015 and adopted a common statement on the Indian Ocean disaster. The
Declaration adopted in Kobe expressed the international community’s determination to reduce
disaster losses and reaffirmed the vital role of the UN system in disaster risk reduction.
Coordinating responses to the Tsunami disasters
In the aftermath of the devastation caused by the recent tsunami, the General Assembly in
resolution 59/279 “welcomed the effective cooperation between the affected States, relevant
bodies in the United Nations system, donor countries, regional and international financial
institutions and civil society in the coordination and delivery of emergency relief.” The Assembly
also stressed the need to continue such cooperation and delivery throughout the ongoing relief
operations and rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts, in a manner that reduces vulnerability to
future natural hazards.” In response to the tsunami, UN, UNDP, WFP, UNICEF, UNFPA, UNEP,
World Bank, UNHCR, WHO, FAO, UNESCO, UN-Habitat and ITU mobilized rapidly to mount a
coordinated response, providing immediate humanitarian relief—food aid, water purification and
emergency health kits, sanitation, temporary shelters, supplies for emergency obstetric care and
safe blood transfusions, and vaccinations—and coordinating efforts for long-term rehabilitation
and reconstruction of the affected areas. |
b0221fn
13. "Impacts of a Warming Arctic: Arctic Climate Impact Assessment", Arctic Climate Impact Assessment Overview
report, 2004.
|
|
