UNUnited Nations Economic Commission for Europe

Press Release

[Index]      

Geneva, 4 June 2003

Public must call political leaders to account
as world marks Environment Day on 5th June

Statement on World Environment Day by Mr. Kaj Bärlund,
Director of the Environment and Human Settlements Division
of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)


Will the celebrations of World Environment Day be marred by dark clouds as the world's industrialized countries seem poised to lose the first battle in the war against climate change? Recent estimates by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggest that the countries that have signed up to the Kyoto Protocol will actually increase their greenhouse gas emissions by 10% by 2010 instead of reducing them by 5% as the Protocol stipulates.

According to IPCC estimates, emissions will continue to grow up until 2020, when they will be 23% higher than in 2000. These numbers do not include those countries that are not part of the Kyoto Protocol such as the United States and Australia, where greenhouse gas emissions are also on the rise.

These developments are all the more disturbing as recent high-level meetings have stressed the urgency of implementing the Kyoto Protocol to protect our environment and our health. At the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg last September and at the "Environment for Europe" Ministerial Conference in Kiev only two weeks ago, countries reaffirmed their commitment to limiting the emissions of greenhouse gases.

Unfortunate, there now seems to be a widening gap between political declarations and the work on the ground. If this gap cannot be narrowed swiftly, there is little hope of seeing the Kyoto targets met. In that case, climate change will accelerate rather than slow down.

Today, 5th June, the world marks Environment Day. If we want to counter the threat of climate change, now is the time to give the Kyoto Protocol and its new policy tools a strong political boost. Members of the public have to put more pressure on their political decision makers, and politicians have to take their responsibility more seriously. Otherwise the Kyoto process will amount to one of the worst setbacks in international environmental policy.

For further information, please contact:

Mr Kaj BARLUND, Director
UNECE Environment and Human Settlements Division
Palais des Nations, office 334
CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland

Phone: +41 (0) 22 917 23 70
Fax: +41 (0) 22 907 01 07
E-mail: [email protected]

Web site: http://www.unece.org/env

 

Ref: ECE/ENV/03/P18