4 March 2010: The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is organizing a series of regional expert consultations between March and May 2010, with a view to assessing the advisability of a Universal Declaration of Ethical Principles in Relation to Climate Change.

The meetings follow up on the initiative of UNESCO and World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST) to promote a debate on the ethical stakes of climate change. The outcomes of the regional meetings will feed into a report by the COMEST that will be submitted to the Director-General of UNESCO in July 2010. At its October 2010 meeting, the Executive Board of UNESCO will then decide whether to request the Director-General to submit to the 36th General Conference in 2011 a draft declaration.
The proposed meeting schedule is: meetings for Europe and North America in Yerevan, Armenia, on 19-20 April, and at UNESCO headquarters, in Paris, France, on 10-11 May; a meeting for the Arab States in Amman, Jordan, on 4-5 May; meetings for Africa in Dakar, Senegal, on 16-17 March, and in Nairobi, Kenya, on 19-20 May; meetings for Latin America and the Caribbean in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, on 9-10 April, and in Montevideo, Uruguay, on 13-14 May; and meetings for Asia and the Pacific in New Delhi, India, on 29-30 March, in Yokohama, Japan, on 22-23 April, and in Auckland, New Zealand, on 26-27 April. [UNESCO Press Release]