In recent years, the efforts made by UN agencies, funds and programmes have expanded from an initial focus on greenhouse gas emissions to include other environmental impacts.
This has been supported by a more systematic approach which sees the inclusion of environmental sustainability goals in the programming of facilities and operations. The overall sequence is based on three fundamental pillars:
1. Measuring and reporting environmental impacts
2. Undertaking efforts to systematically manage and reduce them
3. Achieving climate neutrality across the UN by 2020.
A total of 64 UN entities compiled greenhouse gas inventories for their 2015 emissions, with an additional two submitting the most recently available data. This takes the total number of reporting entities to 66, covering 284,482 personnel distributed worldwide.
UN-wide total greenhouse gas emissions for 2015 amounted to 2 million tonnes of CO2eq, without including optional emissions that lay outside the boundaries of the UN inventory. Field Missions accounted for almost 60 per cent of total UN emissions, followed by WBG (10 per cent), UNICEF (4 per cent), WFP (4 per cent), UNHQ (4 percent), which together with UNDP, FAO, IMF, WHO and UNESCO account for 90 per cent of total UN emissions.
Air travel represents the main emissions source for 83 per cent of participating agencies. Nonetheless, and for the first time since reporting began, facilities-related emissions were the most significant source of greenhouse gas emissions for the UN system, comprising 46 per cent of the total, followed by air travel (40 per cent) and other travel-related emissions (14 per cent) – the latter referring to public transport and owned vehicles – thus following the emissions source distribution of the main emitter (Field Missions).
Per capita emissions for the UN system were 7 tonnes of CO2eq per personnel, ranging from 2 to 40.