The secretariat is working actively to make its offices and use of transport environmentally sustainable. The secretariat has received a mandate from Parties, which it is proceeding to implement.

Towards a climate-neutral UN

The efforts of the UNFCCC are part of a wider United Nations campaign on climate neutrality and sustainability management.

On 5 June 2007 - World Environment Day – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon announced his commitment to lead by example to make the UN climate-neutral. He then invited the executive heads of all UN programmes, funds and specialized agencies to join him in this effort to move swiftly towards climate neutrality, also with the goal of increasing public awareness of the need for more sustainable patterns of consumption. In line with the rest of the UN family, the UNFCCC secretariat is gearing up to become climate neutral. Since 2004, it has been maintaining and reporting on the inventory of its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions deriving from office operations and from travel, both at headquarters and during conference meetings. It has already put measures in place to reduce GHG emissions and is planning to further reduce them and offset the remaining balances.

Reduction measures include purchasing green electricity; reducing air travel and maximizing train travel; teleconferencing instead of travel where appropriate; using energy-efficient lighting and equipment, low-carbon vehicles and 100% recycled paper.

Beyond carbon neutrality

Most of the measures mentioned reduce not only the secretariat’s carbon footprint, but also other impacts on the environment. For instance, in addition to complying with the national rules relevant at headquarters, the secretariat has its waste managed in a sustainable manner, and requires its suppliers to demonstrate adherence to high environmental standards. Work is ongoing to develop a comprehensive and coherent sustainability management system for the secretariat that will address its environmental and social responsibilities as an organization in the UN system.


Moving Towards a Climate Neutral UN - 2010 edition
(1877 kB) The UN family has now launched the second edition of its annual report on what we are doing about our own climate neutrality, including the summary results of the GHG inventory for the year 2009. 
(The successful use by the UNFCCC of video conferencing at COP 15 is highlighted on page 18, while the UNFCCC GHG inventory can be found on page 35.)


"Greening the Blue" website
A new website has been developed to improve the UN’s communications on its internal sustainability performance. Launched on 4 June 2010, it shows what is happening to make the United Nations more sustainable and provides advice to staff on how they can contribute.

Executive summary of related UNFCCC activities

Offsetting the carbon footprint of major conferences

Host governments to COP 14, COP 15  and COP 16 have taken steps to reduce the local GHG emissions resulting from these conferences, including the use of efficient lighting at the conference venues and promoting the use of public transportation by participants. The first significant results were achieved at COP 15 in Copenhagen in December 2009. The Danish government has pledged funds for a project to replace heavily polluting brick kilns in Dhaka, Bangladesh, with new, energy-efficient ones that will offset the GHG emissions resulting from the conference.

Further information can found in the brochure: A Climate Neutral COP 15
(422 kB)