UNEP / YEARBOOK 2012

The depletion of soil and the growing number of end-of-life nuclear power reactors are some of the most pressing environmental issues, according to a United Nations yearbook launched today that compiles the most important events and developments of the year. UNEP

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:00
• Production Date: 13 February 2012
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME - UNEP
• Subject Topical: ENVIRONMENT
• MAMS Id: U120213e

Description

STORY: UNEP / YEARBOOK 2012
TRT: 2.00
SOURCE: UNEP
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 13 FEBRUARY 2012, NAIROBI KENYA

Shotlist

1. Med shot, press conference
2. Wide shot, journalists
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Achim Steiner, Executive Director, United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP):
“In a country like Kenya, probably four percent of the annual GDP equivalent is lost every year, in terms of soil losses, in terms of having degraded and diminished the productivity of the land to produce.”
4. Cutaway, Cameramen
5. Cutaway, journalists
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Achim Steiner, Executive Director, United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP):
“When countries today look at their options, do we go renewable, do we go fossil fuels, do we go nuclear’? What we also wanted to highlight here is that there’s a significant cost involved in choosing the nuclear options. And for many countries, the economics need to be honest, factual and up-to-date.”
7. Cutaway, journalists
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Achim Steiner, Executive Director, United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP):
“We expect well over 120 governments to be represented at the Governing Council. We will have well over 80 ministers, deputy ministers at the Governing Council. The participation is still going up by the day. The key themes this year will be, first of all, the world’s environment ministers speaking to the world community through the Global Environmental Outlook Report number five. As you know, periodically UNEP prepares – with many partners – a kind of state of the planet report. GEO5, which will be released in its full in May, but with the policy makers’ summary already at this Governing Council, the world’s expertise in science being brought to the attention of decision-makers as they prepare to meet in Rio later this year.”
9. Cutaway, journalists
10. Wide shot, press conference

Storyline

The depletion of soil and the growing number of end-of-life nuclear power reactors are some of the most pressing environmental issues, according to a United Nations (UN) yearbook launched today that compiles the most important events and developments of the year.

The UN Environmental Program (UNEP) Year Book 2012 depicts the status of key environmental indicators and highlights the benefits of soil carbon and decommissioning nuclear power plants.

According to UNEP, 24 percent of the global land area has declined in productivity over the past 25 years due to unsustainable land-use. The yearbook points to various assessments indicating that some kinds of intensive agriculture are triggering soil erosion at rates that are about 100 times greater than the rates at which nature can form soil.

Briefing journalists at the launch in Nairobi, UNEP’s Executive Director, Achim Steiner, that that in Kenya for example “probably four percent of the annual GDP equivalent is lost every year, in terms of soil losses, in terms of having degraded and diminished the productivity of the land to produce”.

The yearbook also warns that without changes in the way land is managed, there will be grave losses in forests, peatlands and grasslands, as well as in biodiversity. In addition, land erosion will also affect climate change as huge amounts of carbon stored in the soil in the form of organic matter could be released in the atmosphere, aggravating global warming.

The yearbook, launched on the eve of the 12th special session of the UNEP Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum, also highlighted the importance of decommissioning the growing numbers of nuclear reactors that have reached the end of their original design lives.

Steiner stated that the yearbook provides information about the options that countries have when making energy choices today regarding radioactive materials, safety procedures and financial implications.

He said that when countries today looked at their options, to go renewable, or go fossil fuels, or nuclear, Steiner said that there was a significant cost involved in choosing the nuclear options, and he said that “for many countries, the economics need to be honest, factual and up-to-date.”

As of last month, 138 civilian nuclear power reactors had been shut down in 19 countries, including 28 in the United States, 27 in the United Kingdom, 27 in Germany, 12 in France, nine in Japan and five in Russia. However, decommissioning has only been completed for 17 of them.