5 June 2008: Addressing the
High-Level Conference on World Food Security (3-5 June 2008, Rome, Italy),
UNEP's Deputy Executive Director Angela Cropper cautioned against a
reductionist model to agricultural production that reduces farming to a simple
process of intensification and ignores the wealth of agricultural biodiversity.
5 June 2008:
Speaking on the occasion of World Environment Day 2008, on 5 June 2008,
Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO), said that this year's slogan, “CO2: Kick the
Habit! Towards a Low
Carbon Economy,” reminds the international community of its duty to strive for
a carbon and climate-neutral society. He stressed that there is sufficient knowledge
on the nature, scope and impact of environmental degradation and climate change
to warrant urgent action.
3 June 2008: Private and public
sector participants in the Asia Clean Energy Forum, which convened from 2-6
June 2008, in Manila, the Philippines, called for new investments in clean
energy, amid spiraling costs for oil and coal and the growing threat of climate
change.
4 June 2008: The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the World
Bank jointly organized a fourth regional consultation to discuss their
respective strategies on climate change. The 4 June 2008 consultation in Dakar,
Senegal, was the last in a series aimed at brainstorming and seeking ways to
strengthen collaboration with African institutions and development partners in
order to efficiently implement the strategies. Participants identified three
main challenges – energy security and access, cushioning the adverse effects of
climate change, and climate change risk management and adaptation.
6 June 2008: The World Bank's Carbon Fund is facilitating a
US$8.37 million project in southern Nicaragua that plans to turn 600 hectares
of privately-owned former cattle ranches into new-growth teak forests. The Nicaragua Precious Woods Project began in August 2006,
and intends to absorb nearly 300,000 tons of carbon emissions by the year 2017
while conserving approximately 350 hectares of secondary forest and mature
trees.
5 June 2008: Kandeh Yumkella, Director-General of the UN
Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), emphasized low-emissions economic
development as an element of the solution to climate change in his statement to
commemorate World Environment Day on 5 June.
5 June
2008: The International Labour Organization (ILO) rolled out its Green Jobs
Initiative, aimed at easing the transition to green business and jobs, on World
Environment Day. Speaking about the Initiative, Juan Somavia, ILO
Director-General, said “green
growth and avoiding dangerous climate change depend on greener enterprises and
green jobs.”
22 May 2008: The UNFCCC Secretariat has signed Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) with the Institute for Global Environment Strategies (IGES), based in Japan, and UNEP Risoe, in Denmark, to ensure that the organizations receive a faster, smoother flow of information related to the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
The UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the government of India recently signed a US$42 million agreement under the UNIDO Country Programme of Technical Cooperation in India 2008-2012.
14 May 2008: In his opening statement to the thirty-fourth session of UNIDO's Industrial Development Board, UNIDO Director-General Kandeh K. Yumkella said the accelerating process of global climate change is “ possibly the most pervasive and irreversible global crisis.” He said the global energy crisis was also significant because of its widespread implications, especially on industry, and pointed out other global challenges, including food and global instability, as the major challenges that UNIDO has been asked to assist the international community to resolve.
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