President Halonen to chair a UN Panel

Office of the President of the Republic of Finland
Press Release 9 August 2010

President Halonen and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in Washington in April 2010. Photo: Kari Mokko

President of the Republic Tarja Halonen has been appointed co-chair of the UN High-level Panel on Global Sustainability. The Panel has been established by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. President Halonen will act as chair together with President Jacob Zuma of South Africa.

Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Global Sustainability will address sustainable development by focusing especially on climate change. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched the Panel at a press conference at the UN Headquarters in New York on Monday 9 August. He hoped that the Panel would think big and be bold and practical.

The Panel is expected to deliver its final report at the end of 2011. It is intended that the recommendations of the Panel will be used, for example, in the preparations for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, which follows up on the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio.

The Panel of Global Sustainability includes 21 high-level members representing various countries and fields, including current and past Heads of State and Government and experts from businesses and civil society organizations.

More information is available at UN website