UN announces greenhouse gas footprint in first step to cutting emissions
Copenhagen, 15 December 2009 – After one of the most wide-ranging and painstaking exercises ever undertaken across the United Nations system, the organization today announced its greenhouse gas footprint as part of a first step to manage these emissions down.
The work, coordinated by the UN's Environmental Management Group (EMG), has covered emissions arising from the various UN agencies and its headquarters as well as field operations and peacekeeping missions in Africa and beyond.
The report, compiled in response to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's determination to make the UN system a climate-friendly body, indicates that the biggest international body is emitting the equivalent of 1.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, of which approximately 1 million tonnes comes from peacekeeping operations.
The total figure represents an emissions profile equal to 3.3 per cent of that produced by New York City—the UN's host metropolis.
