ABSTRACT
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has had a mandate to encourage economic growth compatible with the protection of the environment. UNEP will face a number of challenges in making this vision a reality. No one underestimates the difficulties facing world economies, and the changing shape of the financial services sector adds to the problems. UNEP has to change the way it addresses the market in response to such changes and has to do this with very limited resources. A concrete example of a UNEP technical co-operation project that promotes 'win–win' technology options is the project 'Strategies and Mechanisms for Promoting Cleaner Production (CP) Investments in Developing Countries', which was launched by UNEP in 1998 and has been funded by the government of Norway. Investments in CP can have attractive economics due to the reduction of costs for input materials, energy and water, and expenditures on waste treatment and disposal, as well as increases in production and better output quality.
