GENEVA - More than 1,000 United Nations employees have called for the global body to reduce its carbon footprint, including through curbs on their own diplomatic perks like business-class flights and travel handouts, a letter obtained by Reuters showed.
"Our commitments need to be more ambitious and at least as concrete as those of the UN Member States and non-party stakeholders attending the UN Climate Action Summit," said the letter, signed by more than 1,000 employees. The UN, a 75-year-old institution employing 44,000 people in more than 60 countries, emitted 1.86 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2017, its own data show.
Allowances, or per diems as they are known internally, are intended to cover travel costs including food and accommodation, and can exceed US$400 a day for some locations such as New York, according to the International Civil Service Commission website. Other reforms recommended in the letter include a complete divestment of the more than US$60 billion UN pension fund from fossil fuels and creating offices run entirely on renewable energy. Young UN did not respond to requests for comment.
The UN has also launched a"Greening the Blue" initiative which measures the UN system's greenhouse gas emissions, waste disposal, fresh-water use, and environmental management. According to its latest report, 43 of its entities or just over a third were carbon-neutral in 2017.