The UN and UNDP in Brussels

Award Given to joint EU-UNDP Project in Chile Despite the fact that two-thirds of the municipalities in Chile have been declared to be in a state of drought, UNDP and the EU have found a number of ways to combat desertification. As a result, the Universities of La Serena (Chile) and La Regina (Canada) granted an award to the organizations’ project in the Alhuemilla Agricultural Community, “Trapping mist in order to perform forestation and reduce firewood consumption.” Read more...

Environment and Energy

Energy and environment are essential for sustainable development. Poor people depend disproportionately on the immediate environment for their livelihoods. Despite growing attention to environmental issues over the last two decades, insufficient progress has been made in integrating environment issues into national development priorities and financing those priorities. These issues are also global as climate change, loss of biodiversity and ozone layer depletion cannot be addressed by countries acting alone. UNDP helps countries strengthen their capacity to address these challenges at global, national and community levels, seeking out and sharing best practices, providing innovative policy advice and linking partners through pilot projects that help poor people build sustainable livelihoods.

UNDP's work on Environment and Energy focuses on six priority areas:

• Frameworks and strategies for sustainable development
• Effective water governance
• Access to sustainable energy services
• Sustainable land management to combat desertification and land degradation
• Conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity
• National/sectoral policy and planning to control emissions of ODS and POPs

Actions undertaken by UNDP with the European Commission

On environment- and energy-related matters, UNDP and the European Commission (EC) share the same values, endeavoring to strengthen national capacities, help manage the environment in a sustainable manner and ensure adequate protection for the poor. The European Union (EU) and UNDP have helped to provide the necessary tools for developing countries, financing policy-changing programmes that guide them toward sustainable development.

Through its policies and strategies on the environment and sustainable development, the EU also seeks to promote high levels of “environmental protection, social equity and cohesion, economic prosperity and active promotion of sustainable development.” Through projects like the EU–China Biodiversity Programme, the EU and UNDP have shown that biodiversity makes an essential contribution to socio-economic development, income generation and poverty alleviation. In addition, thanks to an EC-funded project to reduce pressures on biodiversity in Kazakhstan, over 20 training courses were given to about 120 groups and projects to develop five pilot villages for ecological tourism development have begun, contributing to the establishment of seven small businesses and employment of over 50 local citizens.

In the area of energy, the EC and UNDP are working together to improve sustainable management of energy and environmental resources for countries such as China, Lebanon, the Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam Chile, Guyana, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, French Guiana, Suriname, Venezuela, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Guinea and Sudan. Our collaboration has ranged from training and capacity building to water systems management and sustainable management of energy resources.

Thanks to the “Ecological and Financial Sustainable Management of the Guyiana Shield Eco-region” programme, the EC and UNDP are assisting Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname and Venezuela to derive culturally appropriate ecosystem management contracts and set up pilot projects that test mechanisms of compensation for provision of ecosystem services without the neglect of benefit sharing mechanisms and monitoring schemes.