SPECIAL ADVISER ADOLF OGI TO DELIVER MESSAGE AT 2007 WORLD CONFERENCE ON SPORT AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN BEIJING

From 25 to 27 October 2007, the Chinese capital will host the Seventh World Conference on Sport and the Environment, jointly organized by the International Olympic Committee and the Beijing 2008 Organizing Committee, in close partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Nine months before the opening of the 2008 Olympic Games, the Conference will particularly address steps being taken to make the Beijing Games environmentally friendly.

The Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace, Adolf Ogi, will take part in the opening of the Seventh World Conference on Sport and Environment together with Jacques Rogge, International Olympic Committee President, Liu Qi and Liu Peng, respectively the Beijing 2008 Organizing Committee President and Executive President, and Shafqat Kakakhel, UNEP Deputy Executive Director. The Special Adviser will deliver a speech on the responsibility and means of action of the actors of the world of sport in the field of environmental sustainability.

Around its theme “From Plan to Action”, the Conference will bring together representatives of governmental and non-governmental institutions, the United Nations system, sport federations, organizing committees, universities, and the private sector, as well as the Olympic Family. Participants will have the opportunity to take part in three plenary sessions and eight parallel sessions highlighting, among other things, the different environmental challenges and opportunities the Beijing organizers are facing. They will also be briefed on the progress of the preparations for the 2008 Games.

Taking place in Beijing, nine months before the 2008 Olympic Games, the timing of this forum is crucial. Its objectives include:

· Communicating and reviewing the environmental work undertaken by the Olympic Movement to date and the initiatives currently being implemented in light of the Beijing 2008 Games;

· Evaluating the implementation of the recommendations of the Sixth World Conference and charting the way forward with specific orientations in terms of sport, the environment and sustainable development for the next two years;

· Discussing the principal themes related to this issue while strengthening partnerships and analysing the latest research undertaken in this field;

· Examining and proposing contributions that sport can make to the international community’s environmental campaign.

This 2007 session builds on the work of the Sixth World Conference, held at UNEP headquarters in Nairobi in October 2005, on the theme “Sport, Peace and Environment”, which closed with the adoption of the Nairobi Declaration on Sport, Peace and Environment. Since 1995, the year when the International Olympic Committee set up its Sport and Environment Commission, the Committee has organized a World Conferences on the topic every two years.

For more information, please contact:

David Winiger, Special Assistant to the Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace.
Email: dwiniger@unog.ch ; telephone: +41 22 917 1461, cell: +41 78 708 0369.

Antoine Tardy, Office of the Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace.
Email: atardy@unog.ch ; telephone: +41 22 917 2555.