UNEP in 2001

Thirty years ago in Stockholm, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment established the United Nations Environment Programme as the environmental conscience of the United Nations system. Since then, our world has changed dramatically. Globalisation has replaced the politics of the Cold War. Personal computers have given us new ways to conduct business and interact with the world. And it has become evident that many of our environmental problems - climate change, degradation of the Earth’s protective ozone layer - are global in nature and demand global solutions. Our challenge is to decrease the agonising poverty and fear that plague billions of our fellow human beings and ensure that globalisation benefits all people. The question of how best to manage the environment is integral to this effort, for it is the Earth’s precious resources and fragile ecosystems that form the foundation of a sustainable future. If we fail to make environmental considerations central to our policy decisions, our city planning, our development programmes and our business practices, we will undermine the very advances we hope to achieve.