The World Mourns One of its Greats: Maurice Strong Dies, His Legacy Lives OnFounding Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Maurice Strong passed away at age 86. Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of UNEP, issued the following statement: “Today the world mourns one of its greats. Maurice Strong was a visionary and a pioneer of global sustainable development. "His courageous leadership allowed the Stockholm Conference of 1972 to make history by launching a new era of international environmental diplomacy which saw the birth of UNEP, the first UN agency to be headquartered in a developing country. Not a believer in summits as an end in themselves, he accepted the appointment to become UNEP's first Executive Director and moved to Kenya to establish UNEP's iconic global headquarters on what was then a coffee farm on the outskirts of Nairobi. "Strong will forever be remembered for placing the environment on the international agenda and at the heart of development. He shepherd global environmental governance processes — from the original Rio Earth Summit, Agenda 21 and the Rio Declaration to the launch of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity. “As the Paris Climate Conference commences, we hope his words echo strong. I reiterate his message to the 2014 UN General Assembly calling on world leaders to ‘rise to their historic responsibility as custodians of theplanet, to take decisions that will unite rich and poor, North, South, East and West, in a new global partnership to ensure our common future'. "The sustainability road-map which started in Stockholm, continued in Rio, Johannesburg and Rio+20, must now become a reality in Paris. This would indeed be the most fitting tribute to the legacy of Maurice Strong; leader, mentor and friend. "Mr. Strong served the United Nations as well as the international community in many capacities - among them as Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Human Environment in Stockholm (1972) and the Rio Sustainable Development Summit (1992). Today we join his family, friends and countless communities across the world in celebrating his life and legacy - with respect, admiration and gratitude". Canada's Business News Network interviews Maurice Strong
Read extracts of the interview Watch Video Maurice Strong: A Study in Leadership
|
Education -- the Key to a Sustainable WorldOur very existence is now at risk and its future is literally in our own hands. We have the knowledge and capacity to ensure our survival. The real question is do we have the will to make the fundamental changes that this requires. Chengdu is well positioned to take this lead in this. UNEP- 40 years on
A new book,written by award-winning conservationist Stanley Johnson, details the history of the Nairobi-based United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The book charts the evolution of UNEP from its inception at the landmark Stockholm conference of 1972 to its position today at the heart of the global environmental movement. "We cannot abandon hope"
Sonia Bridi from TV Globo interviews Maurice Strong on a wide range of topics, including, the first Earth Summit in 1992, environmental issues, population growth and consumption, the aspirations of newly-industrialised nations and impending resource conflicts. Environmental honourMaurice Strong was one of the personalities awarded this year with the "João Pedro Cardoso", the principal environmental honour, granted by the Government of the State of São Paulo in Brazil.School projects at Rio+20Thousands of school children from 117 countries are collaborating to solve the world's biggest environmental problems. The best schools projects from around the world were recognised and announced at Rio+20.Environment: radical changes neededThe change of course called for at Rio in 1992 requires radical changes in our current economic system. This will need to be led by those countries, mostly Western, which have dominated the world economy during the period in which our cumulative damage to the Earth’s life-support systems. Rio+20 must support the increase in the status of UNEP to that of a specialized agency. This could lead to the establishment of a World Environment Organization.Create greater public interest and awareness in Rio+20Maurice Strong calls for the need to create much greater public interest and awareness in Rio+20 as an event in itself. This is what helped to attract unprecedented numbers of world leaders, media and non-governmental organizations to the Earth Summit in 1992. But time is short and the resources available to the Secretariat and others preparing for Rio+20 are meager.Read more: Create greater public interest and awareness in Rio+20 World Green Tourism AwardMaurice Strong, Senior Advisor to the 2012 Rio+20 Summit, was named as the first recipient of the inaugural World Green Tourism Award in recognition of his pivotal role in shaping the global sustainable development agenda, and in recognising the potential of Travel & Tourism to make a contribution to mainstream green growth transformation. |
 |
" This is not just a technical issue. Everybody's actions are motivated by their inner life, their moral, spiritual and ethical values. Global agreements will be effective when they are rooted in the individual commitment of people, which arises from their own inner life."
