KORNYESZ 25-ben emlitett felmerest reszletekben kozlom. Barkinek
szivesen elkuldjuk a teljes valtozatot e_mail-kent avagy ha nagyon
szukseges hard-copy (korlatozott szamban) szinten elerheto: e_mail
to Mr. Terry Collins at  or to me 
snail mail address: UNEP/Regional Office for North America, 
Two UN Plaza, Room DC2-806, New York, NY 10017 USA

                                * * * 

                              Part 3 of 6

UNEP GLOBAL SURVEY ON ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES OF  
              THE FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY  
> ============================================

IV.    Results/Findings  
  
   A.  Current Environmental Activities  (Section I of the survey) 

  
A wide range of questions and areas were covered under this  
heading, as it focused on specific areas of current institutional 
involvement.  
  
1.     Environmental issues overall  
   
               Seventy-seven percent of the respondents rated the 

perceived effect of environmental issues on  their institution as 
either ~great~ or ~somewhat.~   
  
      Slightly less than 50% of the respondents have a documented 
environment policy.  For those that do, the policy has been in  
effect an average of four years.  Somewhat surprisingly, the  
existence of a formal policy does not have a material impact on  
the firms future focus on environmental issues.   
  
2.     Credit risk management  
  
When asked to rate their frequency in performing specific  
environmentally-oriented credit risk management activities, 94%  
of the respondents indicated some involvement in this area. The  
following table shows the ratings based on a six-point scale  
(6=regularly, 5=often, 4=sometimes, 3=occasionally, 2=seldom and  
1=never).  The last column of the table indicates the percentage  
of respondents performing these activities on a regular basis.  
  
Average                                                       %  
Response    Activity                              Responding ~6~  
> ----------------------------------------------------------------- 

4.01        Environmental Impact Assessments                 29%  

3.98        Environmental Credit Risk Analysis or Audit      35%  
2.99        Adding environmental criteria to the  
            credit review process                            16%  
  
  
The data strongly suggests that the majority of respondents are  
actively considering the relevance of environmental issues to  
their risk management activities.  Over 50% of the respondents  
rated at least one of the three activities as being performed on  
a regular basis.  This finding appears to cross all geographic  
borders within the industrialized economies, but a regular review 
process is more infrequent in the transitional economies.  (See  
pages 3 and 4 of Appendix B for data based on stage of  
development.)  As to the differences based on geography, North  
American-based institutions appear to have the greatest focus.   
Surprisingly, European institutions appear to put the least  
effort in this area (see pages 1 and 2 of Appendix B for  
comparisons based on geographic location).  
  
3.     Lending/investment strategy  
  
Using the same six-point rating scale as above, the response to  
questions concerning how environmental issues are affecting an  
institution's lending and investment strategies are shown in the  
following table.  
  
  
Average  
Response     Activity                   
> ----------------------------------------------------------------- 

3.47         Loan to or invest in firms that focus   
             on environmental technologies  
2.85         Targeting of loans/lines of credit for  
             environmental firms  
2.01         Joint ventures with Development Banks  
1.76         Targeting environmentally related venture  
             capital funds  
  
Compared to credit risk management, respondents are less likely  
to include environmental criteria in formulating their overall  
lending or investment strategic focus.  The disparity in these  
responses confirms many opinions that bankers are focusing  
primarily on the risk management side solely and not looking for  
the revenue opportunities to be found in the environmental  
industry.  When firms do look at the revenue side they appear to  
be putting more emphasis on debt financing than equity financing. 

  
When we look at these questions based on stage of financial  
market development or geography we observe some interesting  
results.  It appears that the stage of financial market  
development has no influence on the response to these questions.  

However, geography does influence the results.  In contrast to  
the responses regarding credit risk management, European  
institutions place the most emphasis on lending and investment  
strategies, followed by Asian institutions.  For more specific  
question-by-question comparisons, see pages 1 - 4 of Appendix B.  
  
4.     Educating staff, customers and the general public  
  
Average  
Response     Activity  
> ----------------------------------------------------------------- 

4.01         Educating staff about the environment  
2.83         Educating customers about the environment  
2.21         Educating the public about theenvironment  
  
5.     Recycling, resource and energy conservation, and  
procurement procedures  
  
Average  
Response     Activity  
> ----------------------------------------------------------------- 

4.44         Energy conservation  
4.19         Recycling  
3.94         Resource reduction and resource reuse  
3.31         Adding environmental criteria to all   
             procurement decisions  
  
  
                 Gabor Szilagyi  > 
                 United Nations Environment Programme
                 Regional Office for North America
                 TEL (212)963-7781 
                 FAX (212)963-8193

Kedves Mindenki!

(Vargha) Janos vonalban vagy? Ezt figyeld!

Nemreg valaki arrol probalt meggyozni, hogy az utobbi evtizedekben megepitett
tarozok kovetkezteben kimutathatoan lassult a Fold forgasa. Arrol lenne szo,
hogy az a viztomeg, ami korabban lefolyt az oceanokba, az most hosszabb-rovi-
debb idore megreked a tenger szint felett es ezaltal noveli a Fold inercia
nyomatekat (mint amikor a piluettezo jegtancos kinyujtja a karjat es ettol
ujra lelassul).
Az illetto azt mondta, hogy a dolog eleg hihtetlen, de valoban merheto, es
hogy ezt jobb egy sor mellett megbeszelni, mert ugy fogekonyabb az elme. Nem
tudom, hogy van-e annyi sor, ami engem meggyoz, de varom a velemenyeket.
Egyebkent, van a dolognak jelentosege kornyesz szemmel?

Udv.

Balazs

Nem ertem, hogy otthon miert van olyannagy hallgatas errol - marmint a
Magyarorszagon is robbano demografiai botranyrol.  Nehany nyugati cikk egesz
ijeszto kepet fest.  A kovetkezo iras nem sznobizmusbol van angolul, hanem
egyuttal egy beadando dolgozat-legyet is csaptam ugyanezzel az iromannyal.  (A
cikk tobb anyag alapjan keszult. Fobb forrasok:  the New York Times 1994. apr
6;  The National Interest, Summer 1994;  Magyarorszag KOrnyezeti Allapotanak
Mutatoi, 1994)


DEMOGRAPHIC SHOCK IN EASTERN EUROPE

Vorsatz Diana

	Since the fall of the socialist system in 1989 in Eastern and Central Europe,
demographic indicators in all countries in the region suggest a demographic
catastrophe, never before seen in a modern industrial nation during peacetime. 
Birth rates, death rates, marriages and life expectancies all show seismic
tremors.

	Death rates have been increasing dramatically in most of the formerly
socialist countries.  Even sturdy age groups have been stricken: for example,
between 1989 and 1991, death rates in Eastern Germany rose by nearly 20 percent
for women in their late thirties, and by over 30 percent for men in the same
age.  For more vulnerable groups in less protective environments the situation
is grim.  Since 1989, a drop in life expectancy for both sexes has been
announced by several governments in the region, including the Russian
Federation, Hungary, Poland, Latvia and Lithuania.  In Hungary, death rates
have been increasing in all age groups for men with an overall increase of
appr. 20% and with the largest increase among 35-59 year-old men.  Female death
rates have increased for women between ages 30 and 49. (Hungarian data are from
1991, thus recent trends might be worse.)

	The upsurge in mortality has been accompanied by a dramatic drop in birth
rates.  In Russia, birth rates have fallen by almost 40 percent since 1989;
they fell by over 20 percent in Poland; by around 25 percent in Bulgaria; by
about 30 percent both in Estonia and Romania; by over 60 percent in the former
GDR. Marriage rates have also sharply dropped.

	Abrupt shocks in birth rates have been registered in the past in a few cases
in industrialized countries, but this magnitude has not been detected even
during wartime.  Birth rates showed a decreasing tendency for a period at the
beginning of the socialist era, when the envisaged future awaiting a child
discouraged couples in having children.  The largest decline of the sort in
birth rates has occurred on the course towards defeat in World War II.  Even
then, Imperial Japan and large regions of Nazi Germany recorded a "mere" 25%
decline in their birth rates, comparing to the 20-30-60 percent rates in the
economies in transition since 1989.

	The plunge in births and upswing in deaths result in a general population
decline in the former Warsaw Pact region.  The death to birth ratios achieve a
breathtaking scale: in Estonia, there were three deaths for every two births in
1993; Eastern Germany was burying two people for every baby born.  Moscow
experienced two-and-a-half deaths for each birth in 1993, while there were
nearly three times as many deaths in St. Petersburg as births.

	Although demographic indicators showed a slight declining trend during the
final decade of the socialist era, this is clearly not a mere continuation of
those trends.  During the last years of the socialist rule in the region, death
rates were gradually rising in most countries; and abortions commonly
outnumbered live births. However, demographic tremors of the scale experienced
in the last five years suggest an extreme rate of distress in these societies.

	The reasons are not known.  Although demographic data are precise in these
countries due to the mandatory registration, statistics on the causes of deaths
are less reliable.  Some correlating trends are apparent: in Russia nearly half
of the total increase in mortality was due to cardiovascular diseases; suicide
deaths rose 26%; murders almost by half; and deaths due to alcoholism by more
than 100%.  In some areas the rate of respiratory diseases are increasing at a
concerning rate:  while in 1980 there were 3960 new cases of lung cancer
detected in Hungary, this number was minimum 5557 in 1992.

	The interesting feature of the phenomena is that these demographic declines do
not seem to be associated with any particular set of social conditions,
economic state or political conditions.  The leap in death rates may be more
understandable for Russia, where the medical system has broken down and antique
diseases (like diphtheria) are out of control.  Yet death rates are also up in
Eastern Germany, Poland, and Hungary, where social, political and medical
conditions are all different. 

	In the modern world, significant and general increases immortality always
predicted either social instability, or regime fragility, or both.  Significant
deteriorations in health conditions may of themselves generate destabilizing
pressures. There are unavoidable implications in an inability to cope with
health problems that other societies treat as a routine. Thus, governments in
Eastern and Central Europe should pay far more attention to these seismic
demographic shocks than it is currently happening. 
-----------------------
Na, es akkor igy akarjon az ember hazakoltozni veglegesen...