Post date: Aug 19, 2013 10:43:38 PM
Rio de Janeiro's 2016 Olympic committee signs agreement with United Nations' environmental group in order to set the guidelines for hosting a sustainable and environmentally friendly games.
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL (AUGUST 19, 2013) (REUTERS) - Rio de Janeiro's 2016 Olympics' organizing committee signed an agreement with the United Nations' local environmental group on Monday (August 19) in the hopes of finding ways to minimize the environmental impact the games might have.
The agreement - or management plan as it is being called - established the fundamentals and principals to be used during the planning and executing of the Olympic games at each level of government, city, state, and federal.Four tenets guide the overall plan: responsibility, inclusion, integrity, and transparency.
Brazilian Olympic organizing committee president Carlos Arthur Nuzman was grateful to have the cooperation of the U.N.
"I really want to thank the United Nations for being here with us. It gives us such an honour to sign this agreement and to have the ability to join the United Nations' flag with the Olympic and Paralympic games," Nuzman said.
The plan aims to reduce waste while providing an educating example of how regular society should conduct itself in regard to important conservational challenges such as energy usage and waste disposal.
The United Nations' local environmental group, with the Portuguese acronym of PNUMA, will work side by side with the Olympics organizing committee.
Co-ordinator for PNUMA, Denise Hamu said that an opportunity to work with the Olympics is a rare opportunity.
"We are supporting, questioning, bringing suggestions and at the same time following the development and implementation of this process, which is commendable when you are talking about this type of access. Because there are few organizations that provide this type of opportunity," Hamu said.
Established in 1972, PNUMA is the Brazilian arm of the U.N.'s sector responsible for promoting conservation of the environment and the efficient and appropriate use of its resources.