EnviroNews Service
January 28, 1997
Nairobi, Kenya - "What will distinguish this Governing
Council from all others is our ability to come to grips with issues that cut
to the heart of whether this organization has a future," said Elizabeth
Dowdeswell, Executive Director of UNEP, as she opened the organization's
nineteenth Governing Council session yesterday. UNEP's Governing Council meeting comes at a critical time in the organization's 25 year history. The first such inter-governmental meeting in
a year where United Nations reform is high on the international agenda, and
also in what will be a milestone year for the environment.
"What is at stake is the environmental conscience of the United Nations; the organization uniquely positioned to respond to the environmental needs and aspirations of countries north, south, east and west," Dowdeswell warned. Member states have reduced their overall contributions to UNEP, while at the same time imposing ever-increasing responsibilities on the world's environmental agency. Ministers and high-level government representatives from over 100 countries are attending the two-week meeting which ends Friday February 7.
In June 1997, world leaders will gather at a Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly for the sole purpose of reviewing and appraising the progress of implementation of Agenda 21 - the Global Plan of Action agreed by governments at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This meeting represents a pivotal point in the future of many organizations, including UNEP. With the June meeting in mind, a "high-level" segment of Governing Council, from 5-7 February, will be opened by H.E. Ambassador Razali, President of the United Nations General Assembly. Ministers will be asked to define the nature and substance of UNEP's participation at the United Nations General Assembly Special Session. They will review the governing structures of UNEP, and determine what changes to these structures might be necessary as the organization moves toward the twenty-first century.
Newly elected UNEP President Dr. Arnoldo Gabaldon, former Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Venezuela, posed three questions to delegates in his opening address: "Why is UNEP going through this difficult situation?" Second, "what are our aspirations as far as the treatment given to the environmental issues in the UN?" And third, "what steps should be taken in order to transform UNEP into what we want it to be?"
"The new environmental institution that emerges", said Mr. Gabaldon, "must have the capacity and required hierarchy, and must be endowed with the financial resources necessary to exert a more efficient global authority." In articulating her vision of a reformed Environment Programme, Dowdeswell said, "UNEP must be an organization to champion global environmental issues. UNEP must act as an independent, objective, and authoritative advocate for the environment. UNEP must lead the United Nations in a concerted attack on the worst aspects of global environmental degradation, rising to the challenge of Rio."
UNEP has issued its first Global State of the Environment Report. GEO-1 is the first output in UNEP's biennial GEO report series. GEO-1 is based on an international participatory assessment process involving a global network of 20 collaborating centres of scientific excellence; regional policy consultations; four scientific working groups; and UN participation through the UN systemwide Earthwatch. GEO-1 provides a comprehensive overview of regional environmental concerns, an initial evaluation of policy responses that address regional concerns, and a first glimpse at a possible future using modelling techniques.
GEO-1 is published simultaneously on Internet via six UNEP Web servers in Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Norway, Switzerland and USA to ensure convenient access to this report. The Web version of GEO-1 provides access to the entire GEO-1 report including 70 environmental global and regional graphics provided in quick-look and full size versions in GIF format for direct viewing and downloading. There are 30 tables showing global and regional overviews of environmental issues provided as directly viewable HTML-tables and downloadable Excel files.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C íŸ 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
