COP23 Awarded Certification for Sustainable Conference

COP23 in Bonn, Germany is the first UN Climate Change Conference to receive official certification for eco-friendly performance. Germany’s Federal Environment Minister, Barbara Hendricks and UN Climate Change Deputy Executive Secretary, Ovais Sarmad were recently presented with the Eco-management and Audit Scheme ( EMAS) certificate. The certificate verifies the event management’s successful and environmentally-friendly organisation of the conference.

Event managers were already aiming for the consistent prevention of environmental burdens when planning began eleven months ago, and their work was documented in the environmental statement.

Hendricks said: “We have succeeded in making this Climate Change Conference environmentally friendly and sustainable. This is an important signal for a conference which is not just about negotiations, but also about taking action. It goes without saying that there is still room for improvement in certain areas – this COP only marks the start of the learning curve. I highly recommend using EMAS as the yardstick for future Climate Change Conferences.”

Ovais Sarmad, Deputy Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change said: “I want to thank the German government, the people of Bonn and my own staff for embracing wholeheartedly the UN climate conference 2017 and its ambition to be the greenest COP ever. We are fortunate indeed to be headquartered in a country that is working towards a determined transition to an environmentally-friendly and ever more sustainable future. That said, achieving the high EMAS certification approval was not a given. But here I think we have together raised the sustainability bar of UN conferences with some 28,800 people participating over the two weeks. I am sure many will look to what has been achieved, within the UN system and beyond, for inspiration on how all events and conferences can play their part in meeting the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals.”

All goals and measures were documented in the environmental statement, then assessed on-site over several days by environmental verifiers and subsequently validated. Such measures included waste avoidance and strict waste separation, climate-friendly catering, excellent local public transport, climate-neutral shuttle services and environmentally sound and reusable materials also for the temporary structures. Energy supply and water consumption are also among the areas to be reviewed in the follow-up.

The role of the 650 volunteers who supported the conference and received training onCOP23 environmental issues, should not be underestimated.