One of the contrasts between the 1992 Earth Summit and WSSD was the greater participation of the private sector in forging partnerships and influencing policy. This reflects the recognition among governments and multilateral institutions, as well as by business itself, that the private sector has a crucial role to play in sustainable development. With its history of innovation the private sector can find solutions to many of the development issues that need to be faced over the coming decades, for instance by finding new approaches to supplying sanitation, fresh water, and clean, affordable energy.

UNEP’s strong relationships with industry are helping to incorporate environmentally responsible thinking throughout the sector. Examples include the Tour Operators Initiative for sustainable tourism, the Global e-Sustainability Initiative involving key telecommunications companies, a wide range of cleaner production initiatives, the Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles, and a growing portfolio of projects to promote financing for sustainable development. Private sector operations are increasingly realizing that social and environmental responsibility can provide both short and long-term rewards, and that ignoring the triple bottom line of sustainable development will ultimately be detrimental to their own business. That is why companies are signing up to programmes such as the United Nations Secretary-General’s Global Compact and UNEP’s Global Reporting Initiative.

Attention to the bottom line also drives the UNEP Finance Initiatives (FI), which are helping raise awareness worldwide of the financial—as well as societal—costs of failing to tackle global climate change. Combined with UNEP’s authoritative assessments like GEO and the IPCC Assessment Reports, programmes like the FI are not only helping encourage governmental commitment to the Kyoto Protocol, but are promoting investment in clean and renewable energy by financial institutions and other investors.