Greening the meetings of the conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions

Since 2012, the BRS Secretariat has put in place measures to promote environmental sustainability of its activities, including in the preparation and conduct of its meetings. In line with the United Nations Climate Neutral Strategy, the Secretariat has been working to improve its environmental performance and has been climate neutral since 2012.

The 2019 meetings of the conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (COPs) will be conducted in line with the Secretariat’s sustainability efforts. A number of actions will be undertaken to reduce the environmental footprint of the Conferences and offset unavoidable greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to them.

Your cooperation and support in this important endeavour are highly appreciated.

1. Climate neutrality

The Secretariat has taken steps to make the 2019 COPs climate neutral by offsetting unavoidable greenhouse gas emissions, in particular from the travel of sponsored participants.

Participants and delegates who organize their own travel to and from the 2019 Conferences in Geneva are encouraged to offset their own travel emissions using the United Nations carbon offset platform:

  1. To calculate your travel related CO2 emissions, please use the ICAO's official calculator available at: https://www.icao.int/ENVIRONMENTAL-PROTECTION/CARBONOFFSET/Pages/default.aspx
  2. To offset your emissions, please use the United Nations carbon offset platform available at: https://offset.climateneutralnow.org/howtooffset
    1. The offset purchase funds an array of projects ranging from wind power projects to efficient bus transit systems, or projects that replace harmful cook stoves with healthy, clean-burning ones etc. Projects that sell their credits can be filtered by region, country, co-benefits or price. Purchasing of certified emission reduction units (CERs) corresponding to your emission estimate can be initiated by selecting the project you wish to invest in.
    2. After you choose the project and purchase the CERs, an attestation of the offset will be made available to you.
    3. Please send us a copy of your attestation at sustainability@brsmeas.org to help us track progress in achieving climate neutrality of the 2019 COPs.
  3. Information on progress achieved towards meeting this goal will be communicated during the meetings.

2. Reducing wastes

The 2019 COPs will also aim at reducing wastes, in particular plastic waste, at the meeting venue. Arrangements have been made with the venue and catering service to minimize the use of plastic in take-out containers, sandwich bags, cutlery and cups.

Participants and delegates are encouraged to bring reusable drinking containers (mugs, bottles) and use them at the cafeteria and water fountains located throughout the venue.

3. Paperless meetings

Making a meeting paperless considerably reduces the cost and carbon footprint of the meeting. A paperless meeting also makes it easier for participants to locate documents and allows for faster preparation and distribution of conference room papers.

Participants and delegates are encouraged to bring laptops or iPads, as all documents will be made available online and no hard copies will be provided.

Thank you for helping us in our efforts to green the 2019 COPs!

For more information please contact us at sustainability@brsmeas.org.

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