UNEP director visiting Malta

The United Nations Environment Programme's outgoing executive director, Dr Klaus Toepfer will make a 30-hour visit to Malta this week.

Appointed to UNEP (based in Nairobi, Kenya) in 1998 with the rank of United Nations Under Secretary-General, and a former minister of the environment of Germany (1987 to 1994) Dr Toepfer will give a lecture on Tuesday evening at the Mediterranean Conference Centre focusing on the themes of environment and development. The lecture is one of the Green Window series sponsored by the Ministry for Rural Affairs and the Environment.

Dr Toepfer will be accompanied by Paul Mifsud, co-ordinator of UNEP's Mediterranean Action Plan based in Athens, and have talks with Rural Affairs and Environment Minister George Pullicino as well as an informal meeting with environmental NGOs.

On Wednesday morning, the chancellor of the University of Malta will confer on him an honorary Doctor of Science degree, at a ceremony attended by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Education.

As minister, Dr Toepfer introduced many ground-breaking environmental initiatives in Germany. while at the UN he has championed the cause of developing countries and the mainstreaming of environmental protection throughout government policies..

Dr Toepfer's successor, who will take office on June 15, is another German, Dr Achim Steiner, 39, who is director-general of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.