COP23 Awarded Certification for Sustainable Performance

COP23, which concluded earlier on Friday in the German city of Bonn, became the first UN Climate Change Conference to be officially certified for eco-friendly performance under the EU Eco Management and Audit System (EMAS), the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) said in a press release.

BONN, November 17 (Sputnik) — The certificate granted to COP23 verifies the event management's successful and environmentally-friendly organization of the conference, according to the UNFCC press release.

"We have succeeded in making this Climate Change Conference environmentally friendly and sustainable. This is an important signal for a conference which is not just about negotiations, but also about taking action. It goes without saying that there is still room for improvement in certain areas – this COP only marks the start of the learning curve. I highly recommend using EMAS as the yardstick for future Climate Change Conferences," German Federal Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks said, commending the event.

UN Climate Change Deputy Executive Secretary Ovais Sarmad, in turn, expressed his appreciation for Germany's efforts to achieve an environmentally-friendly society.

"We are fortunate indeed to be headquartered in a country that is working towards a determined transition to an environmentally-friendly and ever more sustainable future. That said, achieving the high EMAS certification approval was not a given. But here I think we have together raised the sustainability bar of UN conferences with some 28,800 people participating over the two weeks," he said.

The conference's performance was assessed against several criteria, in particular, energy, water, waste and greenhouse gas emissions.

The Eco Management and Audit System is an EU environmental management scheme set up in 1993. EMAS provides the opportunity for any company to register with the system in order to improve its environmental management and performance.