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53. A substantial enlargement or the Environment Fund seems unlikely in the current climate of financial austerity. Any additional funds made available by states for UN development programms and activities will likely be channelled largely through NDP and the development programmes of other UN agencies. Moreover, as recommended earlier, the budgets of all of those agencies should be deployed so that environmental considerations are built into the planning and implementation of all programmes and projects.
54. The Environment Fund can be made more effective by refocusing the programme on fewer activities. As other UN agencies assume full responsibility for certain activities now provided through the Environment Fund and finance them entirely from their own budgets, some resources will be released for other purposes. These should be concentrated on the principal functions and priority areas identified earlier.
55. Expanding support and cooperation with NGOs capable of carrying out elements of UNEP's programme will also increase the effectiveness of the Environment Fund. Over the last decade, non-governmental organizations and networks have become increasingly important in work to improve environmental protection locally, nationally, and internationally. However, financial support from the Environment Fund for coopeative projects with NGOs declined in both absolute and relative terms in the last 10 years, from $4.5 million (23 per cent of the Fund) in 1976 to $3.6 million (1 per cent) in 1985.[1]The amount and proportion of Environment Fund resources for cooperation and projects with NGOs should be significantly increased by using the capacities of those NGOs that can contribute to UNEP's programmes on a cost-effective basis.
3. Assessing Global Risks
56. The future – even a sustainable future will be marked by increasing risk.[2] The risks associated with new technologies are growing.[3] The numbers. scale. frequency, and impact of natural and human-caused disasters are mounting.[4] The risks of irreversible damage to natural systems regionally (for example through acidification, desertification, or deforestation) and globally (through (zone layer depletion or climate change) are becoming significant.[5]
57. Fortunately, the capacity to monitor and map Earth change and to assess risk is also growing rapidly. Data from remote sensing platforms in space can now be merged with data from conventional land-based sources Augmented by digital communications and advanced information analysis, photo, mapping, and other techniques, these data can provide up-to-date information on a wide variety of resource, climatic, pollution, and other variables.[6] High-speed data communications technologies, including the personal computer, enable this information to be shared by individuals as well as corporate and governmental users at costs that are steadily falling. Concerted efforts should be made to ensure that all nations gain access to them and the information they provide either direction or through the UNEP Earthwatch and other special proqrammes
- ↑ Ibid., Annex V, Table 8
- ↑ J. Urquhart and K. Heilmnn, Risk Watch: The Odds of Life (Bicester. UK: Facts on File, 1984).
- ↑ 'Risk Assessment and Risk Control' Issue Report. Conservation Foundation. Washington. DC. 19S5: . Schweigman etal.. '"Agrisk". Appraisal of Risks in Agriculture in Developing Countries'. University of Groningen. The Netherlands, 1981.
- ↑ A. Wijkman and L. Timberlake. Natural Disasters: Acts of God and Acts of Man? (London: Earthscan for the International Institute for Environment and Development and the Swedish Red Cross, 1984).
- ↑ WMO, A Report Of the International Conference on the Assesment of the Role of Carbon Dioxide and of Other Greenhouse Gases in Climate Variations and Associated Impacts. Villach, Austria, 9–15 October 1, WMO No. 661 (Geneva: WMO/ICSU/UNEP, 1986).
- ↑ For an overview of the current technological capabilities and possibility. es, see A. Khosla, Development Alternatives, New Delhi, 'Decision Support Systems for Sustainable Development', prepared for WCED. 1986.
