VZCZCXRO5349
RR RUEHAST RUEHHM RUEHLN RUEHMA RUEHPB RUEHPOD RUEHTM
DE RUEHGV #0986/01 3250704
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 200704Z NOV 08
FM USMISSION GENEVA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7503
INFO RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 2869

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GENEVA 000986 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR IO/EDA FOR JHARRIMAN, FOR IO DAS ANDERSON 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV EFIN UN ECOSOC
SUBJECT:  UNCTAD TIPTOES TOWARDS SMALLER CARBON FOOTPRINT 
 
¶1. SUMMARY:  The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development 
(UNCTAD) has answered the call for a carbon-neutral UN by setting 
for itself a carbon emissions reduction target of 20 percent by 
¶2020.  A Swiss firm, the Gaia Group, conducted a carbon emissions 
inventory for UNCTAD, and is advising UNCTAD on options to reduce 
its emissions.  END SUMMARY 
 
----------------------------------- 
UNCTAD's Carbon Emissions Inventory 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶2. On November 9, Mission ECON and EST officers met with Lucas 
Assuncao of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development 
(UNCTAD) and Pasi Rinne of Gaia Group to discuss UNCTAD's efforts to 
reduce its carbon footprint.  According to Assuncao and Rinne, 
UNCTAD is ahead of other UN organizations in responding to UN 
Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon4s call for a carbon-neutral UN.  Using 
extra-budgetary funds, UNCTAD engaged Gaia, a Swiss-based energy 
auditing firm, to conduct an emissions inventory.  The bulk of 
UNCTAD's carbon emissions come from business related travel 
initiated by UNCTAD in Geneva, including travel of guest speakers to 
UNCTAD events worldwide that is paid for by UNCTAD; not included are 
expenses of guest experts and delegates that attend UNCTAD meetings 
at their own expense, and UNCTAD staff commuting.  Of the 3,096.89 
tons/CO2 emitted by UNCTAD a year, 2,819.09 tons/CO2 or 91.03 
percent is from business related travel; the next highest category 
is heating at 8.21 percent.  Of the business related travel 
emissions, 86 percent is attributed to long-haul travel of 1600 km 
and over, and 11 percent is attributed to medium haul travel of 
500-1600 km. 
 
¶3. According to UN employee regulations, business class air travel 
is authorized for flights of nine hours or more. Business class 
travel emits 2.2 times the amount of carbon per capita as coach 
travel. Although a reduction in business class travel would result 
in a large reduction in carbon emissions, Assuncao stated that 
business class travel is a benefit fiercely safeguarded by the UN 
labor union. 
 
------------------------------------ 
Mitigating UNCTAD's Carbon Emissions 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶4. Given that UNCTAD is not addressing the issue of business class 
travel, Assuncao is focusing mitigation efforts on replacing travel 
with direct video conferencing; on energy efficiency within the 
offices; and on developing an incentive program to encourage 
low-emissions practices among employees.  UNCTAD is not buying any 
carbon-offsets. 
 
¶5. Assuncao reported that the use of direct video conferencing (DVC) 
has dramatically increased in the last year, from one or two DVC 
meetings per month in 2007 to 18 in October 2008 alone.  UNCTAD is 
therefore soliciting donors to fund equipment to expand its DVC 
capability.  Assuncao conceded that while DVC is a great tool for 
increased communication, he did not expect DVCs to replace the bulk 
of UNCTAD's travel. Costs for additional video-conference rooms are 
projected to be USD 20,000 per additional room, with fixed 
maintenance costs of USD 40,000 a year, regardless of the number of 
DVC rooms.  Maintenance of the video-conferencing room is provided 
by the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG). 
 
¶6.  UNCTAD leases space from UNOG, and it is working with UNOG 
management to install motion detectors and other energy saving 
devices.  Finally, UNCTAD is working with an employee group to 
encourage energy saving practices, such as turning off computers and 
printers and using video conferences.  Assuncao does not have 
funding to put in place an incentive program to encourage employees 
to make low-emission choices, but he is raising awareness through 
dissemination of the emissions inventory and suggestions on carbon 
savings that everyone can act on. 
 
¶7.  Mission officers suggested that the inventory data summary sheet 
would be more transparent and useful if the travel figure were 
broken down to show the percentage of emissions for business class 
travel versus coach class travel, and to add the statistic that 
"business class travel emits 2.2 times the amount of carbon per 
capita as coach travel."  Such transparent and powerful information 
might cause some environmentally-minded UNCTAD staff to opt for 
coach travel even when they are entitled to business class travel. 
 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
Going Forward with UNCTAD Climate Neutrality 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶8. The carbon emission inventory is a high priority for UNCTAD, but 
without regular budgetary funding, UNCTAD must rely upon 
unpredictable voluntary funding to keep the inventory updated and to 
invest in carbon emissions reduction measures.  UNCTAD is asking 
 
GENEVA 00000986  002 OF 002 
 
 
other Geneva based Missions for contributions and support for this 
climate neutral initiative.  Assuncao estimated that UNCTAD needs 
USD 130,000 to USD 140,000 per year for three years to fund all its 
desired investments in new DVC rooms, energy efficient heating and 
lighting systems, and staff awareness campaigns, and to keep the 
carbon data current. After the initial three years of investment, 
Assuncao estimated that costs for UNCTAD to maintain is carbon 
reduction measures and updated inventory would fall to USD 10,000 to 
20,000 per year. 
 
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COMMENT 
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¶9. UNCTAD could cut both costs and carbon emissions by reducing 
travel, especially business class, but a UN-wide mandate may be 
needed.  An incentive program could be one approach to get staff to 
voluntarily give up business class travel.  For example, employees 
who opted for coach class could be given an extra day of annual 
leave and the financial savings achieved from purchase of the less 
expense coach class air ticket could be invested in projects that 
would offset the carbon emissions generated from the coach class air 
travel. 
 
¶10.  UNCTAD has other options to reduce its carbon emissions as 
well.  After the meeting, we learned that UNCTAD has been successful 
in reducing its biennial number of publications from 225 to 205. 
Given that each publication requires numerous consultations - 
necessitating travel - the good news is that this reduction should 
also have a positive impact on UNCTAD's carbon mitigation program. 
Additionally, at a November 10 meeting of UNCTAD's working party on 
UNCTAD's strategic framework and budget, both developing and 
developed countries demanded that UNCTAD dramatically reduce its 
number of printed publications and instead rely to the maximum 
extent possible on electronic dissemination.  This decision will 
also have a positive impact on carbon emissions since UNCTAD's heavy 
tomes were typically distributed by airmail.  Now UNCTAD needs to 
quantify the carbon reduction impact of these reforms and capture 
the data in its inventory so that UNCTAD can safeguard the carbon 
savings. 
 
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