This is Part V in a 7-part series “All About ICLEI”
All About ICLEI: Part I – The Mayor’s Speech
All About ICLEI: Part II – The ICLEI Pilot Program
All About ICLEI: Part III – The Five Milestones for Climate Mitigation
All About ICLEI: Part IV – United Nations Economic and Social Council & Agenda 21
In Part I we heard Mayor Bramson announce the The ICLEI Pilot Program, in Part II we began to unravel the organizations behind the ICLEI Pilot Program and some of the vague or undefined terms used to describe ICLEI. In Part III, we looked at the organizations behind ICLEI’s Five Milestones for Climate Mitigation. In Part IV, we outlined the historical development of ICLEI from a 1990 Global Warming conference organized by the United Nations and their efforts to implement Agenda 21. Next up we look at who is running the UN Commission behind Agenda 21 and raise some questions for New Rochelle residents.
Who is the current President of the UN Economic and Social Council?
The current president of ECOSOC is Ambassador Sylvie Lucas of Luxembourg.
Who is Sylvie Lucas?
Prior to her appointment, Ms. Lucas served as the Director for Political Affairs in Luxembourg’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She also held the post of the Ministry’s Deputy Director for Political Affairs from 2000 to 2003.
In 1995, she was appointed, for a five year period, as Luxembourg’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations.
Ms. Lucas has also served as Luxembourg’s Ambassador to Portugal (2003-2004), and, simultaneously, as non-resident Ambassador to Cape Verde. She began her Government career in 1990, when she joined her Foreign Ministry’s Directorate for Political and Cultural Affairs. From 1991 to 1995, she served in the Directorate for International and Economic Relations.
Ms. Lucas was born on 30 June 1965. She received a Master of Arts degree in history from the University of Human Sciences in Strasbourg in 1988, and a Master of Arts in European political and administrative studies in 1989 from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium. She speaks five languages: Luxemburgish, French, English, German and Portuguese.
Ambassador: H.E. Ms. Sylvie Lucas
17 Beekman Place
New York, NY 10022
Ph. (212) 935-3589
Fax. (212) 935-5896
Email: newyork.rp@mae.etat.lu
Website: http://www.un.int/luxembourg
One question New Rochelle residents may wish to consider is whether we want to be governed through mandates implemented by unelected boards who operate under a UN Commission headed by an unelected diplomat from Luxembourg through programs administered by a global secretariat based in Canada with programs funded by George Soros.
Maybe we do.
Or maybe New Rochelle residents wish to come up with their own ideas and implement their own plans without “guidance” from international groups created by the United Nations? In either case, it is clear that Mayor Bramson does not see the need to explain just how ICLEI works or how they seek to obtain local contract of municipal governments around the world through the creation of unelected boards which, in turn, seek to control every facet of municipal governance under the guise of protecting the world from anthropomorphic global warming (the world is getting warmed and its our fault). Instead Mayor Bramson has portrayed ICLEI as an unalloyed good when, in fact, the PlaNYC program developed by ICLEI with the Bloomberg administration has been highly controversial.
They Mayor certainly knows all about ICLEI and his own reasons for latching on to an organization that runs conference around the United States and around the world (can you say “boondogle” and “feathering his own nest”) but what’s in it for New Rochelle residents after Mr. Bramson moves on to greener (pardon the pun) pastures.
I do not imagine there are too many people who will not support such things are clean water and clear air. The question is what happens when you get down to brass tacks discussions of how to bring about such goals and what time table should be used. As Mayor Bloomberg found out it is one thing to talk about encouraging greater use of mass transit and another to propose charging a “congestion tax” that charges people eight bucks to drive into the City. Do New Rochelle resident what to triple local taxes to purchase methane capture systems for our water treatment plan or close off streets in downtown New Rochelle to reduce traffic in the City. These are precisely the types of programs ICLEI has brought about in other cities. Is this what we want here? And should decide? Voters? Are Mayor Bramson’s new committees, accountable to no one but a Mayor who, by all accounts, has not attention of remaining as Mayor of New Rochelle for any longer than necessary.
New Rochelle as a community may embrace some of the same goals as ICLEI but we may want to decide for ourselves.