UNEP observes the condition of the environment worldwide
UNEP was established by the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) after the first global environment conference, the Stockholm Conference in 1972. UNEP shall act as the UN’s leading body for the environmental sector. Around 190 countries are members in UNEP. The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Swedish EPA) is supporting with its expertise together with the Ministry of Environment regarding the Swedish work with UNEP.
The Swedish EPA is especially interested in issues regarding the evaluation of the state of the environment and the ability to forecast environmental degradation in an early state. This is also part of the report on the state of the environment worldwide, the Global Environmental Outlook (GEO), which UNEP publishes every fifth year.
Swedish EPA’s cooperation with UNEP
The Swedish EPA has since 2014 partnered with Sustainable UN (SUN) and the UN Environment Management Group Secretariat (EMG), both within UNEP, to strengthen the internal management systems within the UN. SUN is a team that provides support to the UN and public organizations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. EMG is a coordination body working towards identifying and improving issues related to the environment and human settlements.
The purpose of the partnership is improved governance of the UN-system’s environmental impact at all levels, i.e. in programmes, policies, facilities and operations, through a systematic approach.
With the first phase of the UN Sustainability Strategy as a fundament, the partnership will focus on supporting the implementation of the objectives in the strategy on Environmental Management systems, Environmental and Social standards in programming and reporting on environmental sustainability.
The partnership is part of the Environmental Governance Programme (EGP) funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). EGP has now entered a second programme phase, 2020–2023.