18/05/2011
The world must radically alter the way it
produces and consumes materials if genuinely
sustainable development is going to take
root, the head of the United Nations Industrial
Development Organization (UNIDO) said yesterday
(May 17).
Kandeh K. Yumkella,
Director-General of UNIDO, told the Nevsky
International Ecological Congress in the
Russian city of St. Petersburg that countries
need to urgently "green" their
economies.
"We need a fundamental
change in how we produce, consume and exchange
goods", he said. "This is how
we can green our economies, our growth strategies
and our industries, creating new green jobs,
stimulating green investments and encouraging
green innovations."
Mr. Yumkella said this
meant switching to more resource-efficient
and cleaner forms of production and increasingly
using renewable energy to power industries.
"This in turn will
improve the efficiency of our energy, material
and water use and promote conservation",
he noted.
UNIDO is encouraging
businesses to adopt its Green Industry concept,
which asks industries - regardless of their
scope or location - to continuously improve
their environmental performance through
such measures as phasing out toxic substances,
reducing greenhouse gas emissions and strengthening
occupational health and safety.
This week's congress
in St. Petersburg is aimed at promoting
environmental security among the member
nations of the Commonwealth of Independent
States (CIS).
It is also hoped that
the gathering will help with preparations
towards the global summit on sustainable
development, known as Rio+20, which is slated
to take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
in June next year.
Source: UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news
+ More
Brazil boosts initiatives
to reduce deforestation in the Amazon
19/05/2011
The Brazilian Government has intensified
efforts to curb deforestation in certain
Amazon regions where illegal logging has
shown signs of growth in April, Environment
Minister Izabella Teixeira announced yesterday
(May 18), in Brasília. Measures listed
by government officials include substantial
strengthening of enforcement and monitoring
initiatives, including an increase in field
operations and investments to improve satellite
monitoring of the region.
Minister Izabella also
announced the set up of an emergency task
force composed by federal and state-level
environmental agencies, the Federal Police
and the National Public Security Force,
aimed at keeping deforestation rates in
the Amazon under control. "The order
is to reduce deforestation until July. It's
a formal commitment by the Government and
we must fulfill the National Plan on Climate
Change", said Izabella during a press
conference. "We will suffocate environmental
crimes in Brazil", she added.
From January to May
2011, the Brazilian Institute of the Environment
and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama)
has carried out 58 enforcement operations
to deter illegal loggers in the Amazon region,
more than doubling the number of operations
held in the same period last year. According
to the agency, another 200 operations are
planned for the rest of 2011. Ibama has
also mobilized agents from every Brazilian
state to join the enforcement operations,
deploying 546 agents in the region.
As a result, Ibama agents
have seized 5,400 head of cattle in the
region and embargoed 47,000 hectares of
land where logging activities were taking
place. From January to May 2011, fines issued
by the agency amounted to R$ 275 million.
Satellite monitoring
of the region will also be substantially
improved by 2012, according to the Minister
of Science and Technology, Aloizio Mercadante.
Around R$ 1 billion will be invested in
new satellites capable of providing higher
resolution images of the region, helping
improve the accuracy of enforcement operations
in the Amazon.
According to data released
yesterday by INPE, deforestation in the
Amazon region reached an estimate of 593
square km during March and April 2011, against
103,5 square km verified in the same period
last year.
