9 February 2006 – I would
like to send my congratulations to His Excellency
Sheik Mohamed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice
President and Prime Minister of the United
Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai.
Congratulations to your country for organizing
this international environment meeting.
The first time in West Asia.
Congratulations for the successful Zayed
International Prize for the Environment
ceremony.
Where Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General,
received the Global Leadership award.
Again congratulations to all those involved
and to the people of the United Arab Emirates
for their warmth and hospitality.
Thanks to Rachmat Witoelar, President of
UNEP’s Governing Council.
And to Dr Yahya Jammeh, the President of
the Gambia, and to President Leuiberger
of the Swiss Federal Council of the Swiss
Confederation.
And congratulations too to all the governments
and ministers who took part.
For your engagement. For your wisdom.
Congratulations to all those who navigated
us to a successful outcome of the Strategic
Approach to International Chemicals Management
(SAICM).
Some say the Dubai Declaration is not enough.
But we have our first step.
We have a foundation upon which we can build.
It puts us on track to meet the 2020 target
of the World Summit on Sustainable Development’s
(WSSD) Johannesburg Plan of Implementation.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have said already that this great city
of Dubai has become a cross roads.
Where east meets west and north meets south.
The 9th Special Session of UNEP’s Governing
Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum
meets at another important cross roads.
Where environment meets economics.
Where the urgency of balancing development
with the Earth’s life support systems—ecosystems—is
being finally understood.
Where developed, developing and rapidly
developing countries know that environmentally
degradation is THE bottleneck for economic
development.
Where the environment is losing its silk
scarf image. Where it is understood that
it is not a luxury.
But a prerequisite for fighting poverty.
The Bali Strategic Plan on Technology Support
and Capacity Building echoes to this.
Thanks again for the support of the President
of the Gambia and the other five African
presidents who here and in recent weeks
have made Bali their vision.
These six countries, where we are piloting
Bali, are where UNEP is cutting its teeth.
Where, step by step, we are concentrating
efforts.
Focusing on how to strengthen countries’
ability to deal with the economic and environmental
challenges of today and tomorrow.
Bringing our motto—Environment for Development—alive.
Fundamentally linked with Bali is the renewed
commitment to the Environmental Management
Group.
I can inform you that only a few weeks ago
we held a high level meeting of United Nations
bodies and the Multilateral Environment
Agreements.
The proposals arising have been part of
the discussions in this week’s Committee
of the Whole.
Here governments have offered their wisdom
and their proposals on broadening capacity
building.
Needless to say, the future development
of the EMG is also closely linked with the
discussions on reforms of International
Environment Governance.
These come as a result of the 2005 World
Summit in New York and will be taken forward
in the coming months.
I sincerely hope this will lead to a further
strengthening of the environment pillar
of sustainable development
So that the environment can make its full
and rightful contribution to peace and stability
in the world.
In realizing the Millennium Development
Goals.
In delivering the World Summit on Sustainable
Development’s (WSSD) Johannesburg Plan of
Implementation.
There are numerous reasons behind the renaissance
in global environment policy.
Energy and Health—Energy and Climate Change
Nowhere more is this witnessed than in the
field of energy.
On the supply and on the demand side.
We urgently need more energy for development.
There is no specific target for energy in
the Millennium Development Goals.
But we know it is at the centre of all these
eight targets.
Over one and a half billion people in developing
countries are without access to electricity.
We must bridge this divide.
But the current structure of energy is not
sustainable.
Some eighty per cent comes from fossil fuels.
And much of this is wasted.
The planet and its people are paying a high
price for this inefficiency.
An oil price of $50 plus costs the developing
world its entire Overseas Development Aid.
Air pollution cripples the lives and kills
millions around the globe.
The Anthropogenic Brown Clouds forming over
many Continents reduce sunlight and affect
weather patterns.
In Asia, up to 10 per cent of sunlight may
be blocked.
May be affecting agricultural production.
In the developing world it is the women
and children who suffer most.
Inefficient burning of biomass makes indoor
air toxic.
Women and children spend long hours looking
for fuel wood for cooking when they could
be at school.
Inefficient use of energy is also costing
dear in terms of climate change.
Last year weather-related natural disasters
cost more than $200 billion.
Only some days ago British scientists warned
that the Greenland ice cap is now in danger
of melting.
So it is good that our discussions are being
held in Dubai.
The United Arab Emirates is a member of
the global community.
It has ratified the Kyoto Protocol.
On both climate change and on air pollution
there is action.
In December in Montreal we got back the
political will to fight global warming.
• Kyoto countries agreed to work on action
beyond 2012
• Non Kyoto countries signaled growing commitment
in the underlining Convention
• The Clean Development Mechanism to be
beefed up and streamlined.
• New possibilities to include energy efficiency
in the CDM
• No one questioned the science of climate
change
• Governments backed adaptation
Renewables like wind and solar are also
making important in-roads.
Over 40 countries now have targets for renewable
energy supply.
China has set a target of 20 per cent electricity
from renewables by 2020.
The economies of many developed countries
are far less energy intensive than 30 years
ago.
But we must go much further and much faster.
We need far greater gains in energy efficiency,
in cleaner fossil fuel generation in new
technologies.
There is also still so much ‘low hanging
fruit’ to harvest.
I could cite numerous examples but here
is one.
Electrical appliances like TVs collectively
consume large amounts of electricity needlessly.
If they consumed just one Watt we could
save between five and ten per cent of total
electricity in developed country homes.
Biogas from dung is a real success story
in India—incidentally a country with a ministry
for non-conventional fuels!
It is cost effective. It reduces in door
air pollution.
Let’s make biogas a reality elsewhere-wherever
it is used.
Micro hydropower in Nepal is now electrifying
homes for 15,000 families.
It is cost effective. Let’s replicate this
too.
Civil Society
Micro credit schemes have something to do
with civil society.
Civil society is also seeing a renaissance
in its engagement wit the environment.
An example is the trade unions.
Organized labour and environmentalists once
viewed each other with suspicion.
That is now behind us.
Last month in Nairobi we met and signed
the Workers Initiative for a Lasting Legacy.
This is fully under the UN Compact, the
initiative of the Secretary General.
I can only thank wholeheartedly Narbona
Ruiz, the Spanish Environment Minister.
She did a great job at this event.
We will live up to this growing commitment
of all sectors of civil society.
Industry and Business
We have another success story to tell.
One that relates to fuels and to energy.
One that proves that industry is also serious
about air pollution.
The Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles
agreed to phase out leaded petrol in sub-Saharan
Africa by the end of 2005.
Ladies and gentleman this has been done.
Now we must reduce the sulphur content of
transport fuels in the developing world.
It is simply unacceptable that the developed
world has sulphur levels of a few tens of
parts per million.
Unacceptable that developing world fuels
are commonly many thousands of parts per
million.
Industry and business also want to be partners
in the fight against climate change.
The Environmentally Sound Technology Exhibition
underlines this.
Welcome to the companies here like General
Electric.
Let us take these partnerships forward in
mutual self interest.
UNEP’s Finance Initiative recently commissioned
a legal opinion on corporate social responsibility.
It concludes:” Institutional investors have
a far greater opportunity—and in some cases
legal obligation—to incorporate environmental,
social and governance issues in their investment
decision-making than is traditionally believed”.
In other words, social and environmental
issues, have something to do with the bottom
line.
Something to do with performance and thus
share price.
Energy and Water
I said it has been good to be in Dubai.
The economic miracle here could not have
occurred without water.
And water here means desalination.
We need new technologies for energy generation.
We also need them to produce water in a
less energy intensive way.
Improved desalination technologies could
therefore play their part.
Their part in halving the number of people
without access to clean and sufficient drinking
water.
So can better recycling and water saving
technologies from the home to the field.
In helping to meet part of the Millennium
Development Goals.
Water technologies should be taken forward
at the next World Water Forum in Mexico
in March.
Ecosystems, Energy and Tourism
Another reasons for the renaissance in global
environment policy is science.
I mentioned earlier the Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment.
More than 1,300 experts have concluded that
60 per cent of our life support services
are in trouble.
Many of these ecosystems are the basis for
tourism.
Tourism is the world’s biggest industry.
Tourism has been high on our agenda here.
In the past the economic value of ecosystem
services has been all but ignored.
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment has
changed this.
More research is also coming through.
Let me cite one figure from a new report
by UNEP’s World Conservation Monitoring
Centre.
It notes that a coral reef may be worth
up to a million US dollars a square kilometer.
The value comes from the maintenance of
sandy beaches up to their value for divers
and other tourists.
We must continue to strengthen our Global
Programme of Action to reduce sources of
pollution to the coastal environment.
We must build on the Millenniun Ecosystem
Assessment and sharpen the economics.
We must go further.
We must prove that investments in rehabilitating
damaged and degraded ecosystems give you
a ‘Big Bang for Your Buck’.
Some countries already know this.
India announced at the recent Delhi Sustainable
Development Forum that it will restore and
repair up to 500,000 degraded water bodies.
The announcement was made not by the environment
minister but the finance minister.
Spread the word around.
More sustainable use of energy will help
here too.
All roads lead to energy in the end.
Acidification of forests is becoming a growing
problem in parts of Asia.
Last year we released findings from our
Global Environment Outlook Year Book.
‘Dead zones’, oxygen deprived areas of ocean,
are becoming more common and more persistent.
Sewage and fertilizers have a part to play.
But so too do nitrogen compounds from burning
fossil fuels.
Nitrogen is also harming other ecosystem
services such as heaths and grasslands.
So we must take forward the International
Nitrogen Initiative.
Climate change, a result of our wasteful
use of energy, is partly to blame for land
degradation and the loss of soils.
Desertification is a major challenge and
too often forgotten.
You may be able to rehabilitate a wetland
or a polluted river.
But it can take millennia to recreate soils
lost to the wind, droughts or erosion.
I hope we can turn the corner on this in
this International Year of Deserts and Desertification.
The United Arab Emirates is a major tourist
destination. It knows that value of its
ecosystems.
Being here also reminds us of the importance
of ecosystem services beyond their dollars
and cents.
The late Sheik Zayed, whose name graces
the Zayed Prize, is rightly praised for
‘greening the deserts’—for directly fighting
land degradation.
He is rightly praised for his captive breeding
programmes for animals like the Arabian
Oryx.
Sheik Zayed drew inspiration from his faith
and from his cultural identity.
I share the vision of His Excellency Sheik
Mohamed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum when, on the
evening on the ceremony, he called for a
dialogue amongst civilizations.
The Future
I too have pause for thought over the future.
I have a five month old granddaughter.
I also wonder about the kind of world she
will see when she is my age—when she is
close to 70 years old.
There is every chance that, with political
will and the unleashing of human ingenuity,
she should be optimistic.
Seventy years ago wind power was wind mills.
Photovoltaics were a theoretical possibility.
Not a reality.
There are other technologies waiting in
the wings that need a push.
For example geothermal, wave power, tidal
and ocean thermal energy conversion.
The efficiency of fossil fuel power stations
is leaping forward.
We have new possibilities with carbon storage
and carbon sequestration.
We also have economics on our side.
We have the new reality among the rapidly
developing countries that environment is
THE bottleneck to further economic development.
From Thailand to China new strategies like
to Circular Economy are being born.
Let us therefore use out time this week
creatively.
To return to our capitals we renewed vigor
and commitment to solving the energy and
environment crisis.
To echo with concrete actions to the renaissance
of environmental policy.
In doing so, I think it is worth while to
reflect on the words of Albert Einstein,
the scientist, philosopher and genius.
He was once questioned by a student as to
why Einstein was asking them the same set
of questions.
“Because,” Einstein said, “I have a new
set of answers”.
