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UNECE and EuroGeoSurveys to promote the sustainable management of all resources

Sustainable resource management is increasingly recognized in Europe as a matter of singular importance to ensure the well-being of society. The achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals hinges greatly on access to energy and raw material resources. UNECE and EuroGeoSurveys (EGS) will be joining forces to facilitate this access through the application of the United Nations Framework Classification for Resources (UNFC), a global standard that can help ensure sound management of all resources.


The cooperation between UNECE and EGS, formalized through a Memorandum of Understanding, will span a wide range of activities that seek to harmonize the classification, reporting and management of mineral and energy resources and contribute to realizing a  European Geological Knowledge Base for all resources. The partnership will promote the application of UNFC through the National Geological Surveys and Regional Surveys in Europe in the framework of the EGS Mineral Resource Expert Group (MREG) to support policy analyses, government resource management, industrial business processes, the introduction of innovative technologies and financing. The cooperation will include the practical application of UNFC in sharing geological data as part of the Geological Service for Europe, especially in relevant projects and initiatives such as the European Geological Data Infrastructure (EGDI) based on the European Union’s Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe (INSPIRE) Directive.


This collaboration while testing UNFC’s sustainability guidelines and best practices will also seek how European Union’s proactive directives and responses could be rolled back into UNFC. Such an approach will make available best practices form European institutions widely available to the global community. Since international cooperation is a bulwark of Europe’s collaboration for sourcing of raw materials and energy, this collaboration will be mutually reinforcing and is expected to provide a strengthened approach towards sustainable resource management.


UNECE Executive Secretary Olga Algayerova said, “This partnership with EuroGeoSurveys will broaden the use of  UNFC. It opens interesting prospects for transforming the resource sectors, in particular through integrating them with the forward-looking policies and frameworks of the European Union. This will help support the realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”


Professor Teresa Ponce de Leão, President of EuroGeoSurveys, in welcoming the MoU remarked that the collaboration would also help other regions: “based on the experience gained in Europe, including in promoting training and capacity-building programmes, other regions could find it easier to develop the skills and competencies of experts in the classification, reporting and sustainable management of all resources.”


For further information on UNFC and UNECE’s Expert Group on Resource Classification, please visit: http://www.unece.org/energy/se/reserves.html
and contact: Hari Tulsidas at [email protected]
For further information on EuroGeoSurveys, please visit: http://www.eurogeosurveys.org/
and contact: Nancy Savall at [email protected]
Note to editors
About UNFC

UNFC, a flagship project of UNECE, has become the global tool for understanding and managing the resource base of energy and raw materials. This includes primary raw material and energy sources such as minerals, petroleum, coal, as well as renewable energies such as bioenergy, geothermal, solar, wind and hydropower. UNFC offers a common framework that allows countries and companies to manage how the required energy and raw materials could be assured sustainably.


In recent years, there has been significant interest in and uptake of UNFC both within the UNECE region and beyond. In October 2017, the African Minerals Development Centre hosted by the UN Economic Commission for Africa decided to adopt UNFC as the resource management system for the whole of Africa. The Coordinating Committee for Geoscience Programmes in East and South-east Asia (CCOP), an intergovernmental body with 14 member countries, has also decided to apply UNFC as a universal standard for petroleum and minerals.


About EuroGeoSurveys

The Geological Surveys of Europe or EuroGeoSurveys (EGS) is a not-for-profit organization representing 37 National Geological Surveys and some regional surveys in Europe. Its members are public sector institutions carrying out operations and research in the field of geosciences. These organisations have a long tradition, in many cases more than 100 years, in collecting data, preparing information and conducting research focused on their national subsurface.


EuroGeoSurveys provides the European Institutions with expert, neutral, balanced and practical pan-European advice and information as an aid to problem-solving, policy, regulatory and programme formulation the sustainable development of on- and off-shore natural resources.

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