Champion of the Earth Award in the Entrepreneurial Vision category: Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever, transformative business leader

"With his ambitious vision and personal commitment to sustainability, Mr. Polman has established a reputation for leading by example,” said Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environment Program (UNEP), while announcing the award.
UNEP recognized Mr. Polman’s “bold leadership” in proving that transitioning to a low-carbon economy is an opportunity waiting to be seized.
“As Unilever CEO, he is demonstrating the need for long-term corporate thinking that accounts for social and environmental concerns. In addition, his leadership on UN and other sustainability boards is directly influencing a sustainability shift in the corporate world beyond his own company,” said Mr. Steiner.
Mr. Polman has introduced plans to halve the environmental footprint produced by Unilever by 2020. Under his sustainable business models, Unilever has already achieved zero waste to landfill and reduced the amount of CO₂sub> from energy and water in manufacturing by 37 and 32 per cent since 2008.
"I'm deeply honoured to accept this award,” Mr. Polman said in response to the announcement. “As the United Nations prepares to adopt the Sustainable Development Goals and agree a global climate deal, it is more important than ever that businesses take active leadership to show that growth and sustainability are not in conflict.”
Mr. Polman also serves as Chair of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and sits on the Board of the UN Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate social responsibility initiative, and other committees dedicated to pushing successful measures for sustainability for all businesses.
He was also a part of the UN High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons of the Post-2015 Development Agenda. The panel helped draft Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 17, which aims to ‘to strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.’
The annual Champions of the Earth awards are the highest environmental accolade that the UN confers upon outstanding individuals and organizations. The awards will be handed out at a gala ceremony at the close of the Sustainable Development Summit t on 27 September in New York.
 http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=51917#.Vgg5sH3eumt

Sec Gen Ban welcomes joint China-US announcement on measures to tackle climate change

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has commended the joint announcement made on Sept 25 by the Governments of China and the United States on the significant steps each country is aiming to take to address climate change.
“This announcement bolsters prospects for a universal, meaningful agreement in Paris this year. It further signals the shared vision and seriousness with which the world’s two largest economies are moving to a low carbon future,” said Mr. Ban in a statement issued by his spokesperson in New York.
China’s plans to create the world’s largest carbon market by 2017, coupled with its ground-breaking commitment of $3 billion to South-South cooperation on climate change, will improve the health and well-being of its citizens and deliver tangible benefits to the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people, the statement said.
“The Secretary-General also welcomes the United States’ reaffirmation of its commitment to significant emissions reductions and its pledge to the Green Climate Fund,” the statement continued.
Concluding, it said that the joint China-US announcement provides strong leadership and momentum for a comprehensive global climate agreement in Paris that can put the world on a safer, more sustainable pathway.
 http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=51975#.Vgg2OX3eumt

UN adopts new Global Goals, charting sustainable development for people and planet by 2030

The 193-Member United Nations General Assembly today formally adopted on Sept 25 the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, along with a set of bold new Global Goals, which Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hailed as a universal, integrated and transformative vision for a better world.
“The new agenda is a promise by leaders to all people everywhere. It is an agenda for people, to end poverty in all its forms – an agenda for the planet, our common home,” declared Mr. Ban as he opened the UN Sustainable Development Summit which kicked off today and wraps up Sunday.
The UN chief’s address came ahead of the Assembly’s formal adoption of the new framework, Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which is composed of 17 goals and 169 targets to wipe out poverty, fight inequality and tackle climate change over the next 15 years.
The Goals aim to build on the work of the historic Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which in September 2000, rallied the world around a common 15-year agenda to tackle the indignity of poverty.
The Summit opened with a full programme of events, including a screening of the film The Earth From Space, performances by UN Goodwill Ambassadors Shakira and Angelique Kidjo, as well as call to action by female education advocate and the youngest-ever Nobel Laureate, Malala Yousafzai along with youth representatives as torch bearers to a sustainable future.

The adoption ceremony was presided over by Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, who stressed the successes of the MDGSs and the need for the full implementation of the new Agenda.
Speaking to the press after the adoption of the Agenda, Mr. Ban said: “These Goals are a blueprint for a better future. Now we must use the goals to transform the world. We will do that through partnership and through commitment. We must leave no-one behind."
In his opening address to the Assembly, which also marks the Organization’s 70th anniversary, the UN chief hailed the new framework as an agenda for shared prosperity, peace and partnership. “It conveys the urgency of climate action. It is rooted in gender equality and respect for the rights of all.”
Mr. Ban urged the world leaders and others convened at the event to successfully implement the Global Goals or Agenda 30 by launching ‘renewed global partnership.’
“The 2030 Agenda compels us to look beyond national boundaries and short-term interests and act in solidarity for the long-term. We can no longer afford to think and work in silos.
Institutions will have to become fit for a grand new purpose. The United Nations system is strongly committed to supporting Member States in this great new endeavour,” said Mr. Ban.
“We must engage all actors, as we did in shaping the Agenda. We must include parliaments and local governments, and work with cities and rural areas. We must rally businesses and entrepreneurs. We must involve civil society in defining and implementing policies – and give it the space to hold us to account. We must listen to scientists and academia. We will need to embrace a data revolution. Most important, we must set to work – now,” added the Secretary-General.
“Seventy years ago, the United Nations rose from the ashes of war. Governments agreed on a visionary Charter dedicated to ‘We the Peoples’. The Agenda you are adopting today advances the goals of the Charter. It embodies the aspirations of people everywhere for lives of peace, security and dignity on a healthy planet,” said Mr. Ban.
General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft called the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development “ambitious” in confronting the injustices of poverty, marginalization and discrimination.
“We recognize the need to reduce inequalities and to protect our common home by changing unsustainable patterns of consumption and production. And, we identify the overwhelming need to address the politics of division, corruption and irresponsibility that fuel conflict and hold back development,” he said.
On the adoption of the new agenda, UN Economic and Social Council President (ECOSOC) Oh Joon said action on Sustainable Development Goals must start immediately. “The Economic and Social Council stands ready to kick-start the work on the new agenda,” he added.
 http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=51968#.VggvTn3eumu