Environmental Management
The MDGs make an ambitious attempt to respond to environmental issues most directly throughGoal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability, and its Target 9: "Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources". The core UNIDO objective of productivity enhancement links very closely to this particular target of the MDGs and provides the rationale for this service.
Few now doubt that the continuing degradation of the natural environment poses one of the greatest challenges to modern societies. All human, but in particular all industrial, activities create a burden on the environment although paradoxically at the same time the revenues gained from these activities create the basis for our well-being. Major problemsinclude global warming, loss of biodiversity, water and air pollution, releases of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and other toxic substances, and land degradation including coastal erosion. The institutions and industries of developing countries and countries with economies in transition face several constraints in combating the loss of natural environmental resources at the national level and emerging environmental issues of a transboundary, regional and global nature.
It is well established that there is an intimate relationship between poverty and the potential exposure to toxic substances, pollutants and wastes. Furthermore, eliminating the dangers caused to human health and the environment byPOPs and persistent toxic substances (PTS)contributes to a sustainable growth in productivity and, within the proper framework conditions, leads to a sustained and more equitable economic development.
The services provided are as follows:
- Cleaner and sustainable production (CP);
- Water management; and
- Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and Persistent Toxic Substances (PTS)
Close linkages can be forged between the services provided. The hinge of these linkages is the diffusion and transfer of environmentally sound technologies (EST), through which investment and technology promotion, quality and productivity, small business development, energy and different sectoral activities (e.g. agro-industries), on the one hand, and environmental management on the other, become integrated service packages for developing countries and countries with economies in transition.
