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UNEP News Release

CANADA HOSTS UNEP's 6th INTERNATIONAL HIGH-LEVEL SEMINAR ON CLEANER PRODUCTION (CP6)

12 October 2000 - Many of the world's leading proponents of a preventive approach to environmental management will gather at the Headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in Montreal on 16-17 October 2000 for an international seminar on "cleaner production" organized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and hosted by the Government of Canada. This seminar will be the first of two related events hosted by Canada. The International Pollution Prevention Summit will follow on 18-20 October at the same venue.

The 6th International High-Level Seminar on Cleaner Production (CP6) with more than 230 representatives from 72 countries, coming from both the public and private sectors as well as civil society, will review and evaluate the status of cleaner production strategies worldwide. Cleaner production, similar to eco-efficiency, pollution prevention or waste minimization strategies, promotes the elimination of pollution before it is created, rather than using end-of-pipe solutions. It is the continuous application of an integrated preventive strategy towards processes, products and services to increase overall efficiency and reduce risks to human health and the environment. It is a process that requires changing attitudes, behaviours and policies of Government and industry alike.

CP6 will begin on Sunday evening, 15 October. H.E. David Anderson, Minister of Environment, Canada, will welcome delegates and UNEP's Executive Director, Klaus Toepfer will then host a signing ceremony for the International Declaration on Cleaner Production. H.E. Milos Kuzvart, Minister of the Environment, Czech Republic will present the Czech experience with the Declaration. The Declaration is a voluntary commitment, launched in 1998, to implement sustainable production and consumption practices. To date, more than 200 high-level decision-makers from government and industry from over 40 countries have signed the Declaration. The evening's keynote speaker will be Mr. Amory Lovins, the celebrated head of Colorado's Rocky Mountain Institute, who will speak on the theme "Natural Capitalism: The Next Industrial Revolution".

The following morning, Mr. Toepfer will officially open the Seminar's first plenary session for a discussion of the challenges facing further implementation of sustainable production and consumption patterns in a world of rapid technological and economic change. The session's featured speakers will be Mr. Braden Allenby, Vice-President for Environment of AT&T, and Mr. Kalyan P. Nyati, Head of the Environmental Management Division of the Confederation of Indian Industry.

UNEP has been convening such senior-level seminars since 1989 to periodically assess cleaner production achievements and remaining gaps, as well as to establish a global framework for action encouraging synergy amongst the various stakeholders of cleaner production programmes. The previous session was held in Seoul, South Korea, in September 1998.

CP6 will include several new features. An electronic discussion forum has been set up to get inputs from experts from all corners of the world especially from those not able to attend the Seminar. For each session, one theme/background paper has been prepared by experts, and the paper has also been put up on the discussion forum to enable people to go through it and give their comments/contributions before it is actually presented in Montreal. Finally, 50 % of the time in each session has been earmarked for interactive discussions on the issues raised in the theme paper and by the panellists. To date the website -- www.uneptie.org/cp6 -- has been visited by more than 2,000 persons.

Highlights in the Seminar's plenary and break-out sessions will be:

• a review of the International Declaration on Cleaner Production-moving from signature to action;
• a review of government policies and strategies on cleaner production;
• a review of what is happening to improve the flow of investment financing for cleaner production;
• an in-depth look at sustainable consumption and cleaner production as "two sides of the same coin;" and
• how to use cleaner production to support and reinforce the implementation of multilateral environmental agreements.

The results of the Seminar will provide critical input to UNEP's Governing Council session in February 2001 and to the 2002 UN Commission for Sustainable Development's 10-year review of what has happened since the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro (Earth Summit). The Seminar’s outcomes and recommendations will address all the partners in the growing cleaner production network as well as guide future activities.

Note to journalists: The 15 October signing ceremony and the Seminar's opening session on the morning of 16 October are open to the media. A press conference in which Mr. Toepfer will participate, is scheduled to be held at 11:00 a.m. at ICAO Headquarters (999 University Avenue, Montreal Canada).

Please contact Terry Collins for media accreditation: c/o Terry Collins & Assoc., 295 Wright Ave, Toronto, ON, M6R 1L8 Canada T: (416) 532-8218, 538-8712, F: (416) 532-6016, 538-2452 Email: Collins1@sympatico.ca for more details.

For more information, please contact: Mr S.P. Chandak, Cleaner Production Coordinator, UNEP Paris. Tel: +33.1.44.37.14.50, Email: spchandak@unep.fr. Beginning 15 October, he can be reached in Montreal at Delta Centre Ville Hotel (1-514 879 1370) or Email g.clark@ippsummit.org In Nairobi, please contact: Tore J. Brevik, UNEP pokesman/Director of Communications and Public Information, P.O. Box 30552, Nairobi, Kenya; tel. (254-2) 623292; fax 623692; email: cpiinfo@unep.org

About UNEP' Division of Technology, Industry and Economics

• are cleaner and safer;
• make efficient use of natural resources;
• ensure adequate management of chemicals;
• incorporate environmental costs;
• reduce pollution and risks for humans and the environment.

The UNEP Division of Technology, Industry and Economics (UNEP DTIE), with its head office in Paris, is composed of one centre and four units:

• The International Environmental Technology Centre (Osaka), which promotes the adoption and use of environmentally sound technologies with a focus on the environmental management of cities and freshwater basins, in developing countries and countries in transition.
• Production and Consumption (Paris), which fosters the development of cleaner and safer production and consumption patterns that lead to increased efficiency in the use of natural resources and reductions in pollution.
• Chemicals (Geneva), which promotes sustainable development by catalysing global actions and building national capacities for the sound management of chemicals and the improvement of chemical safety world-wide, with a priority on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and Prior Informed Consent (PIC, jointly with FAO).
• Energy and OzonAction (Paris), which supports the phase-out of ozone depleting substances in developing countries and countries with economies in transition, and promotes good management practices and use of energy, with a focus on atmospheric impacts. The UNEP/RISØ Collaborating Centre on Energy and Environment supports the work of the Unit.
• Economics and Trade (Geneva), which promotes the use and application of assessment and incentive tools for environmental policy and helps improve the understanding of linkages between trade and environment and the role of financial institutions in promoting sustainable development.

UNEP DTIE activities focus on raising awareness, improving the transfer of information, building capacity, fostering technology cooperation, partnerships and transfer, improving understanding of environmental impacts of trade issues, promoting integration of environmental considerations into economic policies, and catalysing global chemical safety.

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