UN Staff wear blue to pay tribute to the UN Day

The United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) in Rio de Janeiro chaired local Communications Team (Comm Team) as they organized the UN Day which was celebrated throughout the country. Two main activities were prepared for the celebration.

The first activity was to ask young Brazilians, “What are you doing to take care of the environment?”. The Comm Team partnered with TIM, Brazil’s largest mobile phone carrier and MTV in Brazil. TIM sent a text message to over nine million of their young customers asking them this question. MTV disseminated the campaign during its programmes throughout the day.

MTV and TIM will continue its campaign until the World Environment Day on 5 June 2010. The twenty best ideas and the best five short films will be announced on 5 June 2010.

The other activity was a ceremony in Brasilia’s Botanical Garden in which over 200 people attended. During the ceremony, the Secretary General’s message was read and the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs donated a large sun dial with the UN logo and wooden benches to be placed in the garden. Finally, each chief of an agency in attendance planted a tree in the garden.

Thirty young climate advocates from Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Slovenia, Turkey and the United Kingdom gathered for an International Climate Camp in Jezersko, Slovenia from 21 to 24 September.

The International Climate Camp was organized by the British Council, with the support of the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) Vienna, the British Embassy, the European Commission Representation in Slovenia, the Office of the President of the Republic of Slovenia, the Office of the Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Slovenia, the Slovenian Ministry for Environment and Spatial Planning, the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Danish Embassy in Slovenia, the Finnish Embassy in Slovenia, the Hungarian Embassy in Slovenia and the Turkish Embassy in Slovenia.

The camp, which was held under the umbrella of the "Seal the Deal!" campaign of the United Nations, brought together a multinational group of climate advocates and provided them with a creative space in which to share their experience, gain new knowledge and generate ideas that they would like to see presented at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this December.

In a personal video message to the participants, H.E. Dr. Danilo Tuerk, President of the Republic of Slovenia, emphasized the critical role of the young generation with respect to climate change: "It is the young generation that will suffer most of the consequences of global warming, it is the young generation that is the most sensitive part of the population to this issue, and it is the young generation that is most creative in finding ways towards good solutions," said President Tuerk. "We have to go to Copenhagen to Seal the Deal, not to talk the talk," he emphasized.

Pavel Gantar, President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia responds to the presentation of the climate advocates at the Slovenian parliament

On 24 September, the participants met with the President of the National Assembly of Slovenia, the Slovene Government's Working Group for International Negotiations on Climate Change and the Director of UNIS Vienna to present their conclusions and recommendations for Copenhagen.

United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) in Pretoria arranged a regional launch of the World Economic Social Survey (WESS) in South Africa. 

Professor Jomo Kwame Sundaram, the Assistant Secretary-General (ASG) for Economic Development in DESA delivered the keynote presentation on the report. In order to get an additional perspective, the Office of the Assistant Secretary-General proposed that a South African contributor to the report, Mr. Stephen Thorne from the Cape Town-based NGO, NorthNorth South, also delivered a presentation.

Hard copies of the reports as well as copies of the detailed press release were disseminated to the attendees.

Professor Jomo Kwame Sundaram, the Assistant Secretary-General, DESA addresses audience at the launch of the World Economic and Social Survey 2009

The launch was held at a hotel in Sandton, Johannesburg as that proved to be more accessible for the media than Pretoria. Among the approximately 30 people in attendance were representatives of media, diplomatic missions and research institutions. The briefing was chaired by the UNIC Director, Ms Marie-Evelyne Petrus-Barry.

In his speech, Mr. Thorne highlighted issues of clean energy and the need to switch to low-emissions in order to meet the development and climate change challenges. ASG Jomo Kwame Sundaram delivered a twenty-minute powerpoint presentation highlighting the salient issues raised by the report while emphasising the framework for a global green new deal that the UN Secretary-General had urged.

The presentations were followed by a discussion period where questions were posed to the two speakers by the assembled journalists and others. Issues raised included the upcoming Copenhagen Summit as well as the efforts of African countries to meet the MDG’s in light of climate change considerations.

The day after the presentation, ASG Jomo was interviewed by Channel Africa radio in a pre-recorded 15 minute interview that was broadcast throughout the continent. The relatively small number of journalists can be attributed to the timing of the launch – a late afternoon is passed the submission deadline for many in the press – however the presence of and presentation by ASG Jomo in particular, enhanced the event.

UNIC Pretoria has received subsequent interest in the report from media, academia and government departments and was thanked by the ASG for arranging the launch.   

United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) in Moscow organized the launch of the World Economic and Social Survey - 2009 at the UNIC premises on 2 September 2009. 

Professor Vladimir Popov of the New Economic School presented the Survey to forty-five representatives of Russian academic community, government officials dealing with macro-economic issues (MFA and Ministry of Economic Development including),  journalists, private sector representatives and NGO activists.

Representatives of Russian academic community, government agencies, private sector and the media at the launch of WESS 2009

Using the PowerPoint presentation, Professor Popov made a twenty-five minute overview of WESS-2009, while emphasizing the main theme of this year’s Survey: Promoting Development, Saving the Planet and pointing to the need to identify integrated policy responses to development and climate challenges. 

He cautioned against a simplistic perception that climate problem can simply be addressed by across-the-board emission cuts by all countries or by relying exclusively on market-based solutions to generate the required investments. He pointed out instead that enormous changes will have to be made in the production sectors in countries at all levels of development if progress is to be made in ensuring sustainable low-emission growth and in making economies more resilient to climate change through technological upgrading and diversification.

Like in the past year, Professor Popov’s presentation was excellent. He proved to be a real erudite, a seasoned scholar and a good communicator. He navigated easily thought different points raised by the audience and handled the numerous questions in a professional and confident manner.

Professor Vladimir Popov of the New Economic School and Alexandre Gorelik, UNIC Director launching WESS 2009

The discussion and the Q&A session that followed were substantive and enlightening. Literally each and everyone who spoke made it a point to emphasize the good job done by both DESA in compiling the Survey and Professor Popov in presenting it.

As a matter of fact, in terms of climate change aspect of the economic development the discussion revealed two diametrical perceptions – one, that “the point of no return” has all but passed and only emergency regulatory measures could slow or reverse the humanity’s slide towards the abyss, and the other, arguing that the human contribution to the global warming still needs to be substantiated.

The following day, 3 September, Novye Izvestia, a major daily newspaper, carried a comprehensive story on the launch of the World Economic and Social Survey – 2009 on basis of our presentation. The electronic version of the materials can be found at the following URL: http://www.newizv.ru/news/2009-09-03/114008/.