Subject: INFOTERRA: UNEP Executive Director Announces Plans for Organization
UNEP News Release
For information only. Not an official record.
UNEP Executive Director Announces Plans for Organization
Opening Speech to Special Session of UNEP's Governing Council
Nairobi, 20 to 22 May 1998
NAIROBI, 20 May 1998 - Addressing environment ministers and other
senior government officials in Nairobi today, Mr. Klaus Toepfer,
Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP), outlined his plans for the organization.
On the opening day of the 5th special session of UNEP's
Governing Council, Toepfer told assembled delegates that his plan
focuses primarily on four areas on which UNEP will concentrate in the
short and medium term.
1. Development of an emergency response capacity and
strengthening of early warning and assessment functions of UNEP.
"A precondition for the development of environmental policy is
a strong information, monitoring and assessment capability. In this
regard, we will revitalize and strengthen the information, monitoring
and assessment capabilities of UNEP," said Toepfer.
"There is an urgent need for an early warning mechanism and
emergency response capacity to deal with environmental disasters and
emergencies... A well-coordinated United Nations system-wide response
is required to ensure that manageable emergencies do not develop into
major humanitarian crises," he said.
2. Co-ordination and development of environmental policy
instruments.
The area, said the UNEP Executive Director, will include three
sub-components - support to environmental conventions; chemicals; and
development of economic instruments for the implementation of
international environmental agreements.
"UNEP will streamline effective programme support to promote
linkages between conventions," said Toepfer. "It will revitalize its
role in linking scientific processes underpinning the conventions."
Concerning chemicals, Mr. Toepfer told the meeting that, "The
Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on a Prior Informed Consent
Convention successfully reached agreement on the text of the draft
Convention. The Convention will be adopted in September this year,
and opened for signature at the Diplomatic Conference in Rotterdam,"
he said.
"Negotiations of a global legally binding instrument on
persistent organic pollutants will commence next month at the first
session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on a POPs
instrument in Montreal," he continued.
On the subject of economic instruments, Toepfer said that, "It
is a challenge and an obligation for UNEP to analyze the impacts of
free-market economies linked with liberalization and globalization
and their social and environmental consequences." He said UNEP has
two priorities in this area.
"First, together with UNCTAD, UNEP is launching an
Intergovernmental Panel on Economic Instruments for Environmental
Policy. The focus of this panel is assessment of economic instruments
for implementation of international environmental agreements. UNEP
must contribute to the 'greening' of the tax systems," he said. "We
have to include ecological components in the tax structure and we
have to make sure that environmental costs are included in pricing
policies of private enterprises."
The "second priority is renewal and strengthening of UNEP's
work on Trade and Environment," said the UNEP Executive Director.
3. Freshwater.
"The message of the developing world - grappling with poverty,
growing population, increasing urbanization and industrialization -
is clear. Supply of freshwater will be a critical issue in the years
to come," said Toepfer. "Information, assessment and monitoring of
global water resources will be crucial," he said.
"UNEP is exploring the possibility of developing a global
action programme focusing on the environmental aspects of freshwater
management with a regional component." And, he continued, "UNEP is
reviewing its assessment activities for establishing a system for
predicting hot spots, developing early warning systems to alert
governments to potential disputes on shared water resources."
4. Industry and Technology Transfer
In this area, Toepfer told the meeting that, UNEP will
strengthen "the very good work" of the Industry and Environment
Office in Paris and the International Environment Technology Centre
in Japan on cleaner production activities and transfer of
environmentally sound technology.
He announced that, "In cooperation with the private sector and
the Government of the Republic of Korea, UNEP will launch a 'Cleaner
Production Declaration' to commit signatories to quantified targets
to achieve increased resources productivity and pollution
prevention."
The UNEP Executive Director, who is also Director-General of the
United Nations Office at Nairobi and Acting Head of the United
Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat), briefly addressed the
issue of streamlining UNEP's organizational structure.
"This exercise is being undertaken to provide a cleaner
organizational structure." There is a "need for a leaner and more
effective administration and to avoid overlappings," he said.
In this regard, Toepfer said that, "We hope to achieve
economies of nearly 30 per cent from the streamlining of our
organization in Nairobi. This saving - I have called it the
'environment dividend' - will be used to fund the programs of UNEP,
especially for strengthening the regional profile," he said.
Commenting on the organization's financial situation, Toepfer
said that, "A solid financial base is an essential prerequisite to
UNEP's ability to discharge its strengthened mandate and to meet the
growing environmental challenges worldwide."
"One of my principal objectives in the medium term is to seek,
with the cooperation of governments, to restore the Environment Fund
to at least its 1993 level of over US $65 million," he said.
Concluding his opening address, the Executive Director
acknowledged the support he had received from both the Committee of
Permanent Representatives in Nairobi, and UNEP's High-level Committee
of Ministers and Officials.
"Together, we can make the United Nations Environment
Programme, a catalytic body, the voice of the United Nations in
Environmental Policy," he said. "Together, we can build a stronger
and more effective United Nations presence in Nairobi."
*******
Note to journalists:
Mr. Toepfer's speech in its entirity is available on the internet.
UNEP Home Page: http://www.unep.org.nl/locate/ContentsDirect
For more information:
Tore J. Brevik
Director, IPA
UNEP
P.O. Box 30552,
Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: 254-2-62-3292, Fax: 254-2-62-3927
Email: Tore.Brevik@unep.org
Robert Bisset
Media and Communications Officer
UNEP
P.O. Box 30552, Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: 254-2-62-3084, Fax: 254-2-62-3692
Email: Robert.Bisset@unep.org
UNEP News Release 1998/30
--------------------------------------------
Robert G. Bisset
Media and Communications Officer
UNEP, P.O. Box 30552, Nairobi, Kenya
Tel. +254-2-623084, Fax. +254-2-623692
Robert.Bisset@unep.org, http://www.unep.org.nl/locate/ContentsDirect
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