The Greening the Blue Report 2021 - The UN system’s environmental footprint and efforts to reduce it, is the first report to reveal the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the UN system’s environmental footprint.
The annual Greening the Blue report provides UN system-wide data on the environmental impact areas and management functions identified in the Strategy for Sustainability Management in the United Nations System 2020-2030, Phase I: Environmental Sustainability in the Area of Management.
“Facing a triple planetary emergency — a climate crisis, a nature crisis, and a pollution crisis — we need urgent and determined action from everyone, everywhere,” said Secretary-General António Guterres about the report.
“The United Nations is committed to lead by example in reducing our carbon and environmental footprint in all our operations around the globe. Together, let’s achieve a sustainable, net-zero and resilient world for all.”
The 2021 report, available on the Greening the Blue website, provides 2020 data and focuses on the impacts from 315,000 personnel in Headquarters, field offices and operations on the ground in 56 entities.
In 2020, the UN system generated ~1.5 million tCO2eq greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with per capita emissions of 5 tCO2eq. The sources of the emissions were 32 per cent air travel, 12 per cent other travel and 55 per cent facilities. Ninety-nine per cent of these emissions were offset.
Compared to 2019, UN system GHG emissions decreased by 25 per cent.
Reductions also occurred in waste generation and water consumption. Per capita waste generation in 2020 was 396 kg/person. This is a reduction of 61 kg/person from 2019.
In 2020, an average of 38 m3 of water was consumed per person, an 11 m3 reduction from in 2019.
The steep reduction reflects the sudden and dramatic adaptations in operations that had to be made throughout 2020, as a result of COVID-19.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that there are many ways to work and collaborate that can help reduce negative work-related environmental impacts.
The UN system has a tremendous opportunity to learn from the experiences it gained by working differently and delivering its mandate with less travel and alternative working modalities.
