29 May 2008: The UN Environment
Programme’s (UNEP) Executive Director, Achim Steiner, has become the official
patron of Flocke, a polar bear cub in Germany’s Nuremberg zoo. At the recent ninth Conference of Parties
to Convention on Biological Diversity, which convened in Bonn, Germany, Steiner
said, “I hope a global green economy can be implemented in [Flocke’s] lifetime.

This green economy could reduce carbon dioxide emissions to a level that would
secure the survival of the Arctic habitat as a place where polar bears and
native people can live and develop over the next thousands of years.” [UNEP
Press Release]