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UNEP Governing Council/Global
Ministerial Environment Forum’s 10th Special Session
The UNEP Governing
Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum (GC/GMEF) 10th
Special Session will be held in Monaco, February 20-22, 2008. GMEF is the
world's forum for environment ministers and senior figures from industry
and economics; science; local government; civil society, trades unions and
intergovernmental bodies. Over 100 ministers and several senior industry
players are scheduled to attend the forum. The theme of the forum is
“Mobilizing Finance for the Climate Change”
Some of the key figures that will
be attending the forum with the ministers include:
1. Tulsi
Tanti - Managing Director of
Suzlon Energy, an
Indian wind energy company;
2. Yvo
de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change;
3. Juan
Somovia, the Director-General of the International Labour Organisation.
4. Gunter
Pauli, entrepreneur, businessman and founder of the
Zero Emissions
Research and Initiatives and an expert on nature's solutions to
environmental challenges;
5. James
Cameron, founder of
Climate Change Capital - an investment banking group
specializing in financing a low-carbon economy; and
6. Fernando
Ibanez, Chief Executive Officer of Saguapac, one of the world's most
successful and largest water cooperatives.
7. Professor
V. Ramanathan of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, an expert on the
emerging challenge of 'global dimming'.
Speaking about the GMEF forum,
Mr. Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director,
said:
“The last climate convention
meeting delivered the Bali Road Map. This is the path along which over 190
countries are traveling in order to deliver a new and decisive climate
deal by Copenhagen in 2009. Mobilizing finance, focusing markets and
unleashing innovation will be central to successfully negotiating the Road
Map and avoiding too many detours and dead ends. We are already glimpsing
a transition to a low carbon society. Billions of dollars are now being
invested in renewable energy and hundreds of institutions with trillions
of dollars of assets are now endorsing investment principles that reflect
environmental alongside social and governance concerns. Designing and
delivering a Green Economy will not only avert dangerous and debilitating
climate change. It can address the wider sustainability challenges
outlined in UNEP's recent Global Environment Outlook from loss of
biodiversity and rapid ecosystem degradation to collapsing fish stocks and
depleted soils. In doing so, it opens the door to true sustainable
development - development that benefits rich and poor alike by unleashing
creativity and innovation, spawning new technologies and industries and
stimulating new kinds of green employment patterns. In short, it is about
investing in tomorrow's economy today”.
Main functions and
responsibilities of the Governing Council of UNEP are provided by the
General Assembly resolution 2997 (XXVII) as follows:
1.
To promote international cooperation in the field of the environment and
to recommend, as appropriate, policies to this end;
2. To
provide general policy guidance for the direction and coordination of
environmental programmes within the United Nations system;
3. To
receive and review the periodic reports of the Executive Director of UNEP
on the implementation of environmental programmes within the United
Nations system;
4. To
keep under review the world environmental situation in order to ensure
that emerging environmental problems of wide international significance
receive appropriate and adequate consideration by Governments;
5. To
promote the contribution of the relevant international scientific and
other professional communities to the acquisition, assessment and exchange
of environmental knowledge and information and, as appropriate, to the
technical aspects of the formulation and implementation of environmental
programmes within the United Nations system;
6. To
maintain under continuing review the impact of national and international
environmental policies and measures on developing countries, as well as
the problem of additional costs that may be incurred by developing
countries in the implementation of environmental programmes and projects,
and to ensure that such programmes and projects shall be compatible with
the development plans and priorities of those countries;
7. To
review and approve the programme of utilization of resources of the
Environment Fund.
Discussions at the GC/GMEF
session will include
1. Various
sustainable initiatives by UNEP, World Bank and other organizations
worldwide (e.g. UNEP’s Sustainable Energy Finance Initiative (SEFI);
solar, geothermal and other renewable energy initiatives in
Asia and Africa);
2. UNEP's
new Medium-Term Strategy for 2010-2013 – a strategy designed to evolve the
institution into a more efficient, focused, effective and results based
environmental body of the United Nations better equipped to deal with the
sustainability challenges of the 21st century.
3. Issue
of International Environment Governance and how well UNEP is placed to
address the challenges and opportunities outlined in the recently
published landmark report, Global Environment Outlook-4.
4. Improved
funding for the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management
and the extent to which the international community is moving forward on
the management of the hazardous heavy metal mercury.
5. Consider
a key report on tackling illegal international trade in hazardous
substances alongside one outlining recommendations on how to improve waste
management including recycling in developing economies.
For more details visit the
following sites:
The 10th Special
Session of the UNEP Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum
The Principality of Monaco's host country site
Source: United Nations News Service
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