What is the Ozone Secretariat doing?

Key Figures: Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Water use, m3

Environmental Performance Indicators

Environmental Management System (EMS)

In support of the efforts of the United Nations Secretariat to create climate-smart entities that are aligned with the recommendations made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its 2018 special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, 2 and in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its operations and facilities by 2030, the Ozone Secretariat has developed an environmental management system (EMS) framework adopted in 2022 to mitigate and reduce its carbon emissions, particularly for its travel and external events. The system will record and report on the activities and outcomes of the work of the Ozone Secretariat.

Environmental Management System for Event Operations (PDF)
Environmental Policy for Events (PDF)

Carbon Neutrality Timeline

Greening the Blue Report 2022 shows UN System Accelerating Efforts on Environmental Governance & Training

The annual Greening the Blue Report – The UN system’s environmental footprint and efforts to reduce it shows the progress both at the UN system-wide level and entity level of implementing the Strategy for Sustainability Management in the United Nations System 2020-2030, Phase I: Environmental Sustainability in the Area of Management. The 2022 edition of the Greening the Blue Report, which provides 2021 data and was published on 13 December 2022, reveals the UN system is accelerating efforts particularly on environmental governance and environmental training.

In 2021, the UN’s operations and facilities emitted ~1.2 million tonnes of CO₂eq in total or 4 tonnes CO2eq per capita. The UN system’s GHG emissions by source were 29% from air travel, 56% from facilities, and 15% from other forms of travel.

For the Ozone Secretariat specifically, our operations and facilities emitted 5 tCO₂eq in total or 0.29tCO₂eq per capita, which is below the UN average. If we breakdown our emissions by source for 2021, 0% came from air travel, none from other travel, and the remaining 100% came from our facilities.

We are also pleased to announce that we are one of UN entities that were climate neutral for 2021, meaning that we offset 100% of our greenhouse gas emissions. This is the 8^th year in a row that we are climate neutral.

Around 316 kg/person of waste was generated for the whole UN system in 2021. At the Secretariat, we generated 45 kg/person of waste.

The average water consumption by the UN System in 2021, was 37 m³ per UN personnel per year. In comparison, we used around 15 m³ per person last year.

More information

For more information, please contact our Environmental Sustainability Focal Point, Stephanie Haysmith, stephanie.haysmith@un.org and for the full Greening the Blue Report 2022 click here.