8 MOVING TOWARDS A CLIMATE NEUTRAL UN

1. CLIMATE NEUTRAL UN

The UN system

The UN system is made up of the organizations estab- lished by the Charter of the United Nations, namely, the United Nations principal organs, the specialized agencies provided for in Article 57 of the Charter and a number of programmes established by the General Assembly under its authority derived from Article 22 of the Charter. The agencies are legally independent international organizations with their own rules, mem- bership, organs and financial resources.

The international institutions that make up the UN sys- tem have diverse fields of action and operations, struc- tures, mandate and governing body arrangements, and varying field office presence.

The UN System Chief Executives Board for Coordina- tion (CEB) brings together the executive heads of the organizations that make up the United Nations system, under the chairmanship of the Secretary General of the United Nations.

The agencies, funds and programmes of the UN sys- tem together with the secretariats of Multilateral Envi- ronmental Agreements (MEAs) are member of the UN Environment Management Group (EMG), which was established by the General Assembly to coordinate environmental issues across the UN system. The secre- tariat for the EMG is provided by UNEP.

Progress so far

The aggregated GHG emissions of the UN system organi- zations for their facility operations and travel in 2008, not including peacekeeping, are estimated at approximately 770’000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent. The average annual GHG emissions across the UN system are approximately 8.3 tonnes of CO2

equivalent per staff member.

Polices and measures are being implemented across the UN system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The fo- cus so far has been on improving the energy-efficiency of buildings and office equipment, increased use of renew- able energy, raising staff awareness on energy-savings and

the greening of meetings. Areas where efforts have begun but which hold considerable future potential include the use of information and communication technologies to reduce emissions and streamlining air travel. Measures to cut emissions have also reduced the consumption of en- ergy, water and paper – and therefore costs, and improved planning and efficiency in work delivery.

A number of organizations have already put into place offsetting initiatives. Five UN system institutions have de- clared themselves climate- or carbon-neutral, while six others have offset specific events.