PRESIDENT TO OFFICIALLY OPEN GLOBAL MINISTERIAL ENVIRONMENT MEETING

       Nusa Dua, Bali Province, Feb. 24, 2010 (ANTARA) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is scheduled to officially open the 11th Special Session of the UNEP Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum at Bali International Convention Center here Wednesday.
      The meeting`s theme is "Environment in the Multilateral System" and it will discuss three topics, namely "International Environmental Governance (IEG) and sustainable development", "The Green Economy" and "Biodiversity and Ecosystems".

        The head of state left Jakarta for Nusa Dua on Wednesday morning and was accompanied by National Development Planning Minister/Head of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) Armida Alisjahbana, Minister/State Secretary Sudi Silalahi and presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha.
        The 11th Special Session of the UNEP Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum is being organized by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) from February 24 to 26, 2010.
      Around 1,200 participants, including 100 environmental affairs ministers, from 140 countries are attending the meeting.
       Prior to the ministerial meeting, UNEP organized the Simultaneous Extraordinary Meetings of the Conferences of the Parties (ExCOPs) to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions, also at the Bali International Convention Center, from February 22-24, 2010; and workshop on "Reporting Green: Environment as News".
       Coinciding with the meetings, UNEP officially launched the UNEP Year Book 2010 on Tuesday (Feb. 23).

The Year Book estimates that investing US$22 billion to $29 billion in Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) could cut global deforestation by 25 percent by 2015.

The UNEP Year Book will be presented to the environmental affairs ministers attending the Bali meeting on Wednesday.

UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner told the press last Tuesday (Feb. 23) that gas emission cut pledges listed in the Copenhagen Accord are likely not enough if the world wants to limit two degree rise of global temperature.

There were still opportunities to increase the targets and countries needed to define longer target than 2020, Steiner said.

Countries will have to be far more ambitious in cutting greenhouse gas emissions if the world is to effectively curb a rise in global temperature at two degrees Celsius or less, according to a new greenhouse gas modeling study based on the estimates of researchers at nine leading centers compiled by UNEP.

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