Economic Commission for Europe (ECE)
www.unece.org
HQ: Geneva, Switzerland
Number of staff: 234
Number of locations: 1
Key Figures*
Total emissions: 1,076 tonnes CO2 equivalent
Emissions per staff member: 4.6 tonnes CO2 equivalent
Emissions from air travel: 67 tonnes CO2 equivalent
Air travel as a proportion of total emissions: 6%
Air travel per staff member: 3.1 tonnes CO2
Building-related emissions: 26 kg CO2 equivalent per square metre
* This data is for 2009
“As the convener for supporting global, regional and national action in our region, UNECE is pursuing steps to become climate neutral to set good practice.”
Jan Kubis, Executive Secretary Economic Commission for Europe (ECE)
Executive Secretary’s message
“Climate change is a serious threat to the UNECE region. Expected temperature increases and changes in the distribution of precipitation levels will result inter alia in water shortages, higher demand for water, decreased food production and less scope for hydropower production with consequent negative impacts on livelihoods and heightened security threats. As the convener for supporting global, regional and national action in our region, UNECE is pursuing steps to become climate neutral to set good practice.”
Jan Kubis
Mission
The Economic Commission for Europe pursues the key objectives of all the regional commissions, namely, to foster economic integration at the sub regional and regional levels, to promote the regional implementation of internationally agreed development goals, and to support regional sustainable development by contributing to the bridging of economic, social and environmental gaps among their member countries. To achieve those objectives, UN regional commissions generate multilateral dialogue, knowledge-sharing and networking at the regional level, and work together to promote intraregional and interregional cooperation.
Experience so far
In preparation for becoming climate neutral, UNOG, which manages the buildings that house UNECE and which provides direct procurement, travel and administrative support to UNECE, is taking concrete steps, in close cooperation with the Republic and Canton of Geneva and Geneva Utility provider, to increase the energy-efficiency of the Palais des Nations and to ensure energy-efficient practices are being developed within its activities. UNECE will ensure it adheres to any guidelines put in place by UNOG.
Reduction efforts
In addition to specific actions undertaken by UNOG, UNECE develops and coordinates actions to reduce emissions. A pilot project, entitled ‘Facilitating Electronic Public Participation and Mitigating Climate Change: Proposed Feasibility Study of Teleconferencing and Webcasting Selected Aarhus Convention Meetings’ has been implemented to reduce the amount of travel to meetings. A travel policy is piloted, among others, to decrease staff travel which will be monitored, documented and evaluated on CO2 emissions. A group of UNECE staff have been active in working within the Palais des Nations to promote and encourage staff to drink tap water instead of bottled water and to encourage the use of porcelain coffee mugs instead of disposable cups.
Offsetting
UNOG has already taken the initiative to create an offset mechanism for the office and aims to undertake efforts to reduce its greenhouse gas emission in so far as possible by the end of 2009. The plans by UNOG to offset the remainder through the purchase of offsets are underway with details still to be ffxed and decided upon. Therefore, as a client organization of UNOG, UNECE would be part of these efforts.
In 2007, UNECE organized the sixth Ministerial Conference “Environment for Europe” in Belgrade for which it compensated related CO2 emissions.
Next Steps
In preparation for becoming climate neutral, UNOG, which manages the buildings that house UNECE and which provides direct procurement, travel and administrative support to UNECE, is taking concrete steps, in close cooperation with the Canton of Geneva and Geneva utility provider, to increase the energy-effciency of the Palais des Nations and to ensure energy-efficient practices are being developed within its activities. UNECE will ensure it adheres to any guidelines put in place by UNOG.
UNECE and sustainability: climate change sustainable energy
