Economic and Social Council: Press Release

Increased globalization, urbanization and rising prosperity around the world are taking an ever greater toll on the world’s ecosystems, according to two reports issued to coincide with the opening of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development.

Achieving green growth through better management of materials throughout their life cycle will be central to this year’s session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development. The Commission, which will take place in New York from 3 to 14 May, starts a new two-year cycle that will review waste management, transport, chemicals, mining and the 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production.

The impacts of development policies on indigenous peoples’ culture and identity will be the focus of a two-week meeting beginning Monday, 19 April, at United Nations Headquarters in New York. Effective participation and consultation of indigenous peoples is central to such policies.

As mortality declined in most countries during the twentieth century, life expectancy has risen in all world regions, the United Nations reports, ahead of an intergovernmental meeting on population and development next week in New York. From 47 years in 1950-1955, global life expectancy increased sharply to 68 years in 2005-2010.

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro’s remarks to the Special High-Level Meeting of the Economic and Social Council with the Bretton Woods institutions, World Trade Organization and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, in New York today, 18 March:

Experts will try to figure out how to handle growing amounts of solid waste, a problem compounded by ever-rising urbanization, population growth and global rates of consumption, at a meeting in Tokyo, Japan, on 18 and 19 March.

The well-integrated system of buses, subways and trains in Seoul, capital of the Republic of Korea, will highlight the health, economic and quality-of-life benefits of a sustainable public transport system during a meeting in that city on 16‑17 March.

Following is the text of Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro’s remarks, in the Commission on the Status Women, to the expert panel in preparation for the Economic and Social Council ministerial review on implementing internationally agreed goals and commitments on gender equality and empowerment of women, today in New York:

The Commission for Social Development is to address social integration when it holds its forty-eighth session at United Nations Headquarters from 3 to 12 February.

A one-day meeting will be held at United Nations Headquarters in New York on Monday, 1 February, to accelerate the pace by which decisions on sustainable development are turned into action.