UN Building in Montenegro Goes Green
by Alanda Perry

A new building in Montenegro, the most recent country to join the United Nations, will be the first UN structure to incorporate environmentally-friendly technology. The building, to be constructed on a riverbank in Montenegro's capital city of Podgorica in 2008, was designed by Daniel Fügenschuh. This "Eco Shared Premises" will house all of the UN agencies working in Montenegro—including the UN Development Program, World Health Organization, UN Children's Fund, UN Refugee Agency and other UN consultants.

The location on the riverbank is a crucial part of the building's "green" design. River water will cool the building in the summer, and after being heated by solar technology, warm the building in the winter. The environmentally-sound features don't stop there, however: large gaps in the roof will create natural lighting and ventilation, and solar panels above will power the building while providing natural shade.

The innovative design of the UN building in Montenegro demonstrates the rising interest in environmental concern at the UN. While UNEP has been an important leader on environmental issues since its inception in 1972, the issue of protecting the planet has spilled over into the wider UN system. In February, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a summary of its latest report, which calls the evidence of global warming "unequivocal." The report was produced by about 600 scientists from 40 countries, and its findings have sparked a global conversation about climate change. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has declared action on climate change one of his top priorities. In an address to a student conference on global warming on March 1, Ban said, "the danger posed by war to all of humanity—and to our planet—is at least matched by the climate crisis and global warming." Along with the Darfur crisis and its repercussion in Sudan, Chad and the Central African Republic, as well as the status of Kosovo, the Security Council placed climate change on the top of the list for its discussions this month.

Changes to the building sector could have an impressive impact on slowing carbon emissions. According to a report released by UNEP at the end of March, the building sector uses 30 to 40 percent of energy worldwide. Most of the energy is used after construction, largely through lighting and temperature regulation. Commenting on the report, Buildings and Climate Change: Status, Challenges and Opportunities, UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said, "By some conservative estimates, the building sector worldwide could deliver emission reductions of 1.8 billion tons of C02. A more aggressive energy efficiency policy might deliver over two billion tons, or close to three times the amount scheduled to be reduced under the Kyoto Protocol."

While the new UN building in Montenegro will incorporate cutting-edge green technology, many of the steps that can be taken to reduce energy use in building are quite modest. For example, Steiner noted that, based on estimates by the International Energy Agency (a intergovernmental organization that is not part of the UN system), switching from traditional incandescent light bulbs to fluorescent bulbs could achieve more than half of the emission reduction targets in the Kyoto Protocol. States that sign the Kyoto Protocol agree to mandatory restrictions on the amount of greenhouse gasses they can produce in order to try to slow global warming. In a press release about the new report, Oliver Luneau, chairman of UNEP's Sustainable Construction and Building Initiative, suggested several other low-cost solutions, including using sun shading, natural ventilation and recycled building materials.

To learn more about the new UN building in Montenegro, check out http://content.undp.org/go/newsroom/march-2007/environment-un-building-montenegro-20070329.en.
For more information about the impact of the building sector on carbon emissions, read the full UNEP report at www.unep.fr.