40th Anniversary Book
Launched Highlighting the Struggles and
Successes of UNEP Since 1972
Nairobi, 14 February 2013 - Hundreds of
environment ministers, decision makers,
scientists, civil society representatives
and business leaders are set to gather at
the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) headquarters
next week to galvanize a new era of stronger
action on pressing environmental issues.
The delegates will be
making a small but significant piece of
history by attending the first ever meeting
of the UNEP Governing Council/Global Ministerial
Environment Forum (GC/GMEF) under universal
membership as a result of the Rio+20 Summit
held last year.
FURTHER RESOURCES
Press events and accreditation for the Governing
Council
An interactive version of UNEP The First
40 Years will be available at
As well as charting a course for a strengthened
UNEP that will help transform a wide body
of science into concrete policy action,
the meeting will cover many pressing and
emerging issues, including: sustainable
consumption and production patterns and
the post-2015 Development Agenda, financing
options for chemicals and waste, and system-wide
coordination on Rio+20 follow-up.
UNEP will launch new
reports outlining emerging issues such as
the global consequences of rapidly receding
ice in the Arctic, the latest research on
the impacts of chemical exposure on the
hormone system of humans and animals, and
an assessment of off-grid lighting in several
countries around the world.
A major new UNEP-led
technology initiative that focuses on the
transfer of technology and expertise to
developing countries in order to intensify
the battle against climate change will be
announced.
At Rio+20, Heads of
State and governments decided to strengthen
and upgrade UNEP - a move which represented
the first institutional reform of the environment
programme of the UN since the Stockholm
UN Conference on the Human Environment established
UNEP in 1972. This was followed by the adoption
of a resolution at the 67th session of the
UN General Assembly later in the year.
The decision to upgrade
UNEP implemented the commitments made by
world leaders to strengthen UNEP's work
in addressing global environmental challenges,
and to establish the organization as the
leading international authority that sets
the global environmental agenda.
"UNEP - with its
long history of working with partners from
governments, the UN family, cities, the
scientific community, businesses and civil
society - is entering a new phase that can
better serve the needs of a growing global
population while keeping humanity's footprint
within planetary boundaries," said
UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive
Director Achim Steiner.
"The theme of the
Governing Council, Rio+20: From Outcome
to Implementation, highlights that the time
has come for the world to scale-up and accelerate
the implementation of the array of treaties
and transformational policies that have
been agreed and successfully demonstrated
across the globe for over four decades,"
he added. "From this landmark meeting,
and as a result of reforms put in place
in the last six or so years, UNEP is emerging
better placed to maximize its potential
to address the realities of and real opportunities
for a sustainable 21st century."
40 Years of UNEP
Also, to mark the 40th
anniversary of the organization, UNEP on
Thursday launched UNEP The First 40 Years,
a book by award-winning conservationist
Stanley P Johnson covering forty years of
UNEP's history.
The book - which is
not an official UN history - charts the
evolution of UNEP from its inception at
the landmark Stockholm conference of 1972
to its position today at the heart of the
global environmental movement.
"UNEP has come
a long way from a small secretariat of around
a dozen people, housed initially above a
supermarket in downtown Nairobi, to the
truly global institution we see today,"
said Mr. Steiner. "Mr. Johnson's account
charts UNEP's growth in comprehensive detail;
at the same time it serves as a fascinating
history of the growth in awareness of the
many environmental problems the world faces
and the efforts put in place to tackle them."
The book ranges across
an extraordinarily wide front; from early
efforts to clean up dangerously polluted
oceans, adopt urgent action to save the
ozone layer, prevent the harmful dumping
of toxic waste, protect biodiversity and
save endangered species and fauna, to today's
efforts to promote the Green Economy.
The book takes the reader
behind the scenes to witness first-hand
the role played by UNEP in complex and often-fraught
negotiations resulting in landmark treaties
such as the Mediterranean Action Plan and
subsequent Regional Seas Programme, the
1983 Convention on the Conservation of Migratory
Species of Wild Animals, the epoch-defining
1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that
Deplete the Ozone Layer, the Convention
on Biological Diversity, and the Basel Convention
on the Control of Transboundary Movements
of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal.
Based on interviews
with key actors at the time, such as former
Kenyan Foreign Minister Dr. Njoroge Mungai,
the book also details the delicate diplomatic
manoeuvring which resulted in the fledgling
organization becoming the first UN body
to be headquartered in the developing world.
"Kenya always has
been and remains an extremely welcoming
host," said UNEP Spokesperson and Director
of Communications Nick Nuttall. "Today,
few question what a far-sighted decision
it was to place the headquarters of a UN
body in the developing world, but this narrative
reminds one how radical it was at the time
and the key role Kenyan diplomats played
in that decision."
