In Vienna, Secretary-General opens new modern, climate-friendly UN complex

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon began an official visit to Vienna today by inaugurating a new environmentally-friendly, state-of-the-art facility which will support discussions between countries on a range of critical issues, from nuclear weapons to drugs and crime.

Donated by Austria, the “M Building” – as the new complex is known – encompasses dozens of meeting rooms and has the capacity to service up to 1,500 people. “The United Nations and other Vienna-based organizations are very grateful for this meaningful contribution, which will facilitate our work here immeasurably,” Mr. Ban said at the inauguration ceremony.

The Secretary-General highlighted the fact that the new facility is environmentally friendly and hailed its many energy-saving features, such as re-circulating heat and sensors to optimize cooling and heating efficiency and minimize waste.

“For the past year and a half I’ve been pushing the environmental agenda, and it’s encouraging to see that in this building has been designed with the best interests of the planet at heart,” he stated.

In remarks to the press on the site of the new conference building, Mr. Ban addressed the current food crisis, owing to the soaring prices of basic staples such as rice and wheat.

“We must take immediate action in a concerted way,” he said, stressing the need, in the short term, to address the humanitarian crisis, and, in the long term, to explore how to improve distribution systems and promote improved production.

While in Vienna, the Secretary-General met with Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik. He later held a working luncheon with Ms. Plassnik and the foreign ministers of the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Slovakia, as well as senior officials from Poland and Hungary. They discussed cooperation between the UN and the European Union, Kosovo, Chad, Darfur, the Middle East, Cyprus and UN reform.

Mr. Ban also met with Austrian President Heinz Fischer, with whom he discussed the country’s contribution to peacekeeping operations in Chad and Kosovo, the Olympic Games, the Annapolis peace process in the Middle East, the humanitarian situation in Gaza and this September’s summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The Secretary-General arrived in Vienna from Côte d’Ivoire, the final leg of a four-nation West African tour that also took him to Burkina Faso, Liberia and Ghana.