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 United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) is a Regional Commission located in the premises of and supported by an Office-Away-From-Headquarters (OAH), the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) submits emissions data on behalf of its Secretariat Department clients, including UNECE.
“As the convener for supporting global, regional and national action in our region, the UNECE is pursuing steps to become climate neutral to set good practice.”
Sven Alkalaj, 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, the UNECE is pursuing steps to become climate neutral to set good practice.”
Sven Alkalaj, Executive Secretary, Economic Commission for Europe (ECE)
Mission
The UNECE pursues the key objectives of all 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 its efforts to become climate neutral, the UNOG, which manages the buildings that house the UNECE and which provides direct procurement, travel and administrative support to the UNECE, is taking concrete steps, in close cooperation with the Republic and Canton of Geneva and the Geneva Utility provider, to increase the energy-efficiency of the Palais des Nations and to ensure energy-efficiency practices are being developed within its activities. The UNECE continues to ensure it adheres to any guidelines put in place and to support all efforts made by the UNOG.
Reduction efforts
In addition to specific actions undertaken by the UNOG, the UNECE develops and coordinates actions to reduce emissions. A pilot project, “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 of meetings. The UNECE programmes reduce emissions by organising and participating to coordination or consultation meetings, whenever technically possible, through audio-, video- or skype conferences. The UNECE continues to organize most of its meetings as paper-smart meetings. An on-line training platform on industrial safety was developed under the Industrial Accidents Convention in cooperation with UNEP and Joint UNEP/OCHA Environment Unit, thus providing a low-carbon means of introducing diverse stakeholders to industrial accidents prevention, preparation and response. In 2012,the UNECE adopted a Travel Policy which encourages all staff to carefully consider their mode of short-haul official travel and to use the most CO2 efficient travel option or video conference option available as a priority.
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
The UNOG, which manages the buildings that house UNECE and which provides direct procurement, travel and administration support to the UNECE, is taking concrete steps, in close cooperation with the Republic and Canton of Geneva and the Geneva Utility provider, to increase the energy-efficiency of the Palais des Nations and to ensure energy-efficiency practices are being developed within its activities. The UNECE will continue to ensure it adheres to any guidelines put in place and to support all efforts made by the UNOG in this important area.
UNECE and sustainability: climate change sustainable energy
