United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
http://unfccc.int
HQ: Bonn, Germany
Number of staff: 500*
Number of locations: 2
* As of 2010, in addition travel of staff, travel of all participants funded from UNFCCC resources has been included in the inventory.
Key figures
Total emissions: 5,119 tonnes CO2 equivalent
Emissions per staff member: 10.2 tonnes CO2 equivalent
Emissions from air travel: 4,941 tonnes CO2 equivalent
Air travel as a proportion of total emissions: 97%
Air travel per staff member: 9.9 tonnes CO2
Building-related emissions: 7 kg CO2 equivalent per square metre
“As the institution dedicated to support international efforts to combat climate change, the UNFCCC secretariat has always felt a special obligation to minimize its own carbon footprint, and to encourage, advise and assist governments that host UNFCCC conferences and events."
Ms. Christiana Figueres, Executive SecretaryUnited Nations Framework Convention (UNFCCC)
Executive Secretary's Message
"As the institution dedicated to support international efforts to combat climate change, the UNFCCC secretariat has always felt a special obligation to minimize its own carbon footprint, and to encourage, advise and assist governments that host UNFCCC conferences and events. It is now the time to complete these efforts, by keeping the secretariat’s greenhouse gas emissions as low as possible and continually reducing them further, and then compensating for any remaining balance through climate change mitigation activities elsewhere. It is my firm intention to lead the UNFCCC secretariat to full climate neutrality by the end of 2012."
Ms. Christiana Figueres
Mission
The Convention on Climate Change sets an overall framework for intergovernmental efforts to tackle the challenge posed by climate change. It recognizes that the climate system is a shared resource whose stability can be affected by industrial and other emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The Convention enjoys near universal membership, with 194 countries having ratified.
Experience so far
The purchase of 100% green electricity for a number of years already has enabled the secretariat to sharply yet easily cut greenhouse gas emissions from operating its offices. In addition, the secretariat is gradually introducing maximally energy-efficient office equipment and vehicles, and on-line publishing that replaces print publications.
A major challenge in the work on climate neutrality remains to be the carbon footprint of the secretariat’s travel activities, which account for the lion’s part of emissions. The secretariat’s travel policy gives preference to the least carbon intensive routes and modes of travel. For instance, train travel of secretariat staff to the Conferences of the Parties (COP) in Poznan in 2008 and Copenhagen in 2009 has helped lower potential carbon emissions. Also, tele-, video- and on-line conferences have proven to be a viable and popular means to reduce the need for individual travel while at the same time increasing and improving communication with external counterparts.
Governments who host UNFCCC conferences and meetings have been eager to achieve climate neutrality of these events, and cooperation with the secretariat has been very good and successful. A challenge that remains is to motivate also the many participants to reduce their carbon footprint, especially from travel to the conferences and meetings.
Reduction efforts
- 100% electricity from renewable sources
- Ongoing upgrade of office equipment
- Use of energy-efficient lighting, shared printers, recycled/certified paper, energy-efficient cars and bicycles for local transportation, waste separation and recycling/incineration (no landfilling)
- Replacement of print with on-line publications and conference documents
- Travel policy conducive to emission reductions through, e.g., most efficient mode of travel and direct routing; compulsory train travel for trips of up to 6 hours duration; economy class travel for some long-distance destinations
- Reduction of travel through tele-, video- and on-line conferencing
- Vendor and product sustainability are obligatory selection criteria in procurement
- Awareness-raising for staff
- Approved use of budgetary means for emissions reduction investments and offsets
- Standard provision on environmental sustainability in host country agreements for conferences
- Encouraging and assisting host countries in organization of green meetings
Offsetting
The secretariat used to offset its travel-generated greenhouse gas emissions from certain events, such as COPs or other meetings, on a case-by-case basis, subject also to availability of funding. Following the budgetary approval by the Conference of the Parties at its 15th session in December 2009, the secretariat has now developed and is about to implement a mechanism to offset greenhouse gas emissions from all of its own travel activities, following the user-pays principle.
The secretariat also encourages host countries to offset the greenhouse gas emissions related to the organization of Conferences of the Parties and other hosted UNFCCC events, and assists them where necessary in the inventorying of emissions and identification of appropriate offsets. As a result, e.g., emissions from sessions in Spain and Denmark in 2009, Mexico in 2010 and South Africa in 2011 could be reduced and balances offset.
To ensure the highest quality and reliability of offsets, the secretariat considers that offsets, for greenhouse gas emissions both within its own as well as the host countries’ responsibility are to come from Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs) generated from registered CDM projects.
Next steps
To achieve climate neutrality, the secretariat will continue to pursue the three-step approach endorsed by the UN’s Chief Executives Board: inventory emissions, reduce them, and offset the remaining balance.
In inventorying, the resolution of data collected will be increased in order to enable customized and targeted reduction and offsetting.
As for reductions, the secretariat is continuing to work on its Emission Reduction Plan to minimize greenhouse gas emissions from its office operations and travel activities. This will require significant changes in policies and practices across many areas. The focus in 2012 will be on travel: increased use of virtual communication and collaboration tools to avoid travel and of economy class to reduce the GHG footprint. Another focus area will be a more systematic approach to greening UNFCCC conferences and meetings, e.g., though making them more paper-light.
The remaining balance of greenhouse gas emissions will be offset through the purchase of CERs.
Find out more about UNFCCC and sustainability
