Former Union minister Jairam Ramesh has been appointed as a member of a board which provides strategic policy advice to a key UN agency on environmentally-sound technologies for developing nations.
Ramesh said he has accepted the offer to serve as a member of the International Advisory Board (IAB) which gives strategic policy advice to the Executive Director of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on the programmatic direction of International Environmental Technology Centre (IETC).
The IETC, based in Osaka, Japan, was established with the mandate of providing support to developing countries in transition with environmentally-sound technologies.
In the short and medium term, IETC is focusing on support for waste management. According to the UNEP, with the current population and urbanisation growth and rapid depletion of natural resources, utilising waste as a key resource for sustainable development is imperative.
In this context, UNEP envisages a larger scope for IETC to make this contribution to the developing countries building on the existing knowledge, expertise and technology.
IAB membership will include senior policy and technical representatives from all the regions.
Mr. Ramesh was recently named to chair a global research platform panel on sustainable development instituted by an alliance of organisations such as UNEP, UNESCO and World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).
The inaugural Future Earth Engagement Committee is the flagship initiative of the Science and Technology Alliance for Global Sustainability (the Alliance).
