ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF FRANCE'S NUCLEAR TESTING IN SOUTH PACIFIC CALLED FOR IN SECOND COMMITTEE
Press Release
GA/EF/2693
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF FRANCE'S NUCLEAR TESTING IN SOUTH PACIFIC CALLED FOR IN SECOND COMMITTEE
19951101 A comprehensive environmental impact assessment of the cumulative effects of the nuclear tests being conducted by France in the South Pacific was necessary, the representative of Papua New Guinea told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) this afternoon as it continued consideration of environment and sustainable development.Speaking on behalf of the South Pacific Forum, he said the resumption of the tests undermined France's obligations to the precautionary approach explicit in Agenda 21, the programme of action adopted by the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro. Also, nearly 200 detonations had been carried out at Mururoa Atoll. Those actions, in the absence of the needed environmental impact assessment reports, clearly indicated France's failure to comply with its legal obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention on the Protection of the Natural Resources of the South Pacific, known as the Noumea Convention.
The representative of Australia said his country viewed the continuation of nuclear testing by China, and the resumption of nuclear testing by France in the South Pacific, as "backward steps in the progress made towards sustainable development". Like the vast majority of peoples and nations, Australia could not accept that continued or resumed nuclear testing could, in any sense, be seen as consistent with the provisions of Agenda 21.
Also this afternoon, the representative of Sudan expressed regret that some countries viewed the concept of partnership for development with a limited perspective. His Government had submitted projects to international financial institutions to which donors had not been receptive, for political motives.
The representative of Guyana, speaking on behalf of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), expressed disappointment and concern at the slow progress being made to fulfil the Rio commitments. The single most important impediment to progress in the environmental field was the failure to provide new and additional financial resources to developing countries and to transfer environmentally sound technology.
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The great political momentum achieved during UNCED should be reflected in the 1997 special session of the General Assembly to review the implementation of Agenda 21, the representative of Japan said. Its outcome should be a negotiated political document providing clear guidelines for future actions and priorities in the context of a long-term strategy to be pursued by governments and organizations. Non-governmental organizations should be encouraged to take part in the special session, he added.
Statements were also made by the representatives of Iran, Lesotho (on behalf of the Southern African Development Community (SADC)), Bulgaria, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Kenya, Tunisia, Nepal, Ethiopia, Ukraine, Burkina Faso and Uganda. The representatives of France, Australia and Papua New Guinea spoke in exercise of the right of reply.
At the outset of the meeting, Bo Kjellen, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for the Elaboration of an International Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa, addressed the Committee.
The Committee will meet again at 3 p.m. tomorrow, 2 November, to continue its consideration of the question of the environment and sustainable development.
Committee Work Programme
The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) met this afternoon to continue consideration of the question of environment and sustainable development, including implementation of decisions and recommendations by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) and desertification and drought. (For background information, see Press Release GA/EF/2690 of 30 October.)
Statements
BO KJELLEN, Chairman of the International Negotiating Committee for the Elaboration of a Convention to Combat Desertification, said the timetable for the Negotiating Committee's work for 1996 and 1997 should be abided by as that would lead to work being on time for the first conference of the parties. He stressed the importance of the necessary budgetary allocations to be made for the parties' conference to take place in 1997.
GEORGE TALBOT (Guyana), speaking on behalf of the 13 member States of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), expressed their disappointment and concern at the slow progress being made to fulfil the commitments given in the Declaration approved at the 1992 Rio Conference on Environment and Development and in the implementation of its Agenda 21. Several CARICOM countries which had been severely battered by a spate of hurricanes, had seen their economies reduced to ruins. Their future was now bleak since the process of rebuilding would be neither easy nor swift. The recent spillage of cyanide slurry from a major gold mining operation in the interior of his country had revealed how vulnerable small States like his were to continuing threats to their fragile ecosystem.
He said the Commission for Sustainable Development was ideally placed to prepare for the planned review of the implementation of Agenda 21 in 1997. On the question of priorities, he said the particular problem of small island developing States, the identification of constraints on progress and the means by which those could be overcome, should be considered. The aim of the session should be to secure strong political commitment to the prompt and full implementation of Agenda 21. The single most important impediment to progress in the environmental field had been the failure to provide for the transfer of appropriate technology and new and additional financial resources to developing countries. He urged developed countries to honour commitments given at Rio and to increase their assistance flows to developing countries.
He said CARICOM countries were fully prepared to discharge the obligations arising from Agenda 21 and all other agreements on the environment. At the same time, they expected their developed partners to do their share with a sense of urgency.
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DOMINIC J. FOREMAN (Australia) said it was ironic that the Committee was discussing environment and sustainable development at a time when little regard was given by some countries to the environmental impact of nuclear tests. Australia viewed the continuation of nuclear testing by China, and the resumption of nuclear testing by France in the South Pacific, as "backward steps in the progress made towards sustainable development". Like the vast majority of peoples and nations, Australia could not accept that continued or resumed nuclear testing could, in any sense, be seen as consistent with the provisions of Agenda 21. It deplored continued nuclear testing regardless of where it occurred.
As a biologically mega-diverse country, Australia had a strong interest in international activities concerning conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. The second conference of the parties to the Convention on Biodiversity, to be held in Jarkata, presented an opportunity to explore options for addressing those issues. Australia supported international action on the management of chemicals, including persistent organic pollutants that took account of regional variations in environmental conditions and requirements. The goal of sustainable development would be best met by an approach that considered the interests of all members of the international community, he added.
MOHAMMAD JABBARY (Iran) said sustainable development and protection of the environment were common tasks for and in the interest of all peoples. However, as the largest part of the current emissions of pollutants into the environment, including toxic and hazardous wastes, originated in the developed countries, and their unsustainable consumption and production patterns continued to be the major causes of the deterioration of the global environment, they should take the main responsibility for that task. There was an urgent need for the developed countries to implement the commitments they undertook under Agenda 21, particularly by providing new and additional financial resources and transferring environmentally sound technologies on concessional and preferential terms. "If this does not happen, the chances for achieving the Rio objectives are slim", he said.
He stressed that the Global Environment Facility (GEF) resources fell far short of requirements for the implementation of Agenda 21. On the 1997 special session to review the implementation of Agenda 21, he said it should focus on the removal of barriers to the expeditious and comprehensive implementation of the Agenda, by addressing the issues he had just mentioned. The provision of substantial financial resources and other forms of support for countries affected by the problems of desertification, particularly in Africa, was essential to carrying out the desertification Convention's implementation. A Programme Office for the Regional Network of Research and Training on Desertification Control had been established in Tehran. The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), at its last annual session, had supported the strengthening of that Office and had
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requested the convening of a high-level meeting of the Regional Network to develop further its role and mandate.
N. MAKOETJE (Lesotho), speaking on behalf of the 12 member States of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) (Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe), said those countries attached great importance to an early entry into force of the Convention to Combat Desertification. He welcomed the inclusion of a critical area of concern on "women and environment" in the Platform for Action adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women. Reviewing action taken by SADC countries since the Rio Conference, he said they had improved their agricultural land use and management, energy and water resource management and population policies, with the aim of attaining a sustainable use of natural resources and ensuring that a policy environment existed conducive to honouring their international obligations.
Noting that the southern Africa region had in recent years been severely hit by drought cycles which had adversely affected agricultural production and devastated the natural environment, he urgently appealed to the cooperating partners of the region's countries to extend assistance to them, at both bilateral and multilateral levels. He expressed satisfaction at the fact that since the expansion of its mandate to cover the whole African continent, the restructured United Nations Sudano-Sahelian Office, now known as the Office to Control Desertification and Drought, had established a close working relationship with SADC. The commemoration of the World Day to Combat Desertification was assuming increasing national importance in SADC countries. That was testimony to the effectiveness of national sensitization and awareness campaigns; external assistance was needed to expand those campaigns.
ZVETOLYUB BASMAJIEV (Bulgaria) said Bulgaria was in the process of transforming its environmental, economic and social policies into an overall strategy for sustainable development. Its efforts were aimed mainly at institutional strengthening and capacity-building. It was facing serious difficulties in implementing the national programmes due to insufficient financial resources and the negative impact of a number of external factors. The successful outcome of the third ministerial conference on environment for Europe, held recently in Sofia, would provide further impetus to the environmental action programme for countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
Bulgaria considered the establishment of the Commission for Sustainable Development as the most important of the steps taken in the follow-up process to UNCED. His country was firmly convinced that GEF should continue to play an important role as one of the instruments in support of the efforts to adapt national economies to the requirements of environmental protection. Its operations should be in line with the requirement to stimulate international trade as an important factor for sustainable development, he added.
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HONG JE RYONG (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) said the time had come for the revival of the political will and common spirit at Rio to achieve environmentally sound and sustainable development in a genuine global partnership. As a member of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), his country remained fully committed to its role in environmental protection. It had also taken a positive view of the Secretary-General's proposals on the format, scope and organizational aspects of the 1997 special session of the General Assembly on the review of the implementation of Agenda 21.
The Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea had formulated a national strategy for implementing Agenda 21 and was working to speed up that process in close cooperation with various countries and other relevant organizations within the United Nations system.
SAM K. ONGERI (Kenya) said his country had ratified the climate change and biodiverity conventions and, in line with the requirements of Agenda 21, was addressing issues relating to environment and sustainable development. Kenya had developed central umbrella legislation to address environmental degradation, and would next embark on harmonizing various sectoral legislations to bring them in line with the central one. It had also put in place mechanisms to implement the Convention to Combat Desertification.
He said UNEP should be strengthened financially and with personnel to enable it to cope with its added responsibilities. Kenya was concerned that too many environment-related meetings were held away from UNEP headquarters at Nairobi. It was necessary to rationalize the programming of meetings to ensure that UNEP's Nairobi facilities and resources were fully utilized. Kenya would continue to honour its international obligation by giving UNEP maximum support. He reaffirmed Kenya's commitment to and interest in bidding for the hosting of the biodiversity secretariat in Nairobi. His country had elaborate and well thought-out systems that governed the management of biodiversity. It had offered adequate office accommodation and, in addition, would make available 10 acres of land at no cost to the permanent secretariat to build its own headquarters if that was considered necessary in the future.
ABDERRAZAK AZAIEZ (Tunisia) called upon all countries to ensure the full implementation of Agenda 21. Reviewing measures taken by his country to combat desertification, he said that from experience it had focused on the human perspective. The desertification problem was so complex that despite the successful efforts much remained to be done. Thus the need for the assistance of the international community, and he called on it to give to the Convention and its secretariat support of the same weight given to the conventions on climate change and biodiversity.
Sustainable development required a balance between human needs and the natural environment, he said. He cited a government programme which encompassed matters relating to energy consumption and the use of alternative
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energy sources. Action for sustainable development at the national level required the financial backing of developed countries as well as the transfer of environmentally sound technology to developing countries.
UTULA U. SAMANA (Papua New Guinea), speaking on behalf of the South Pacific Forum members who are also members of the United Nations (Australia, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Marshall Islands, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu), said extraordinary and regrettable French nuclear testing was taking place in the South Pacific region.
He said the South Pacific members had increased their participation in international and regional forums carrying a message consistent with the international concerns for maintaining sound environmental management practices and sustainable development. "For many of our island countries, anything other than this is a challenge to the sensitive balance between our cultures, the limited and vital resources, security and our identity."
The Forum countries would work to fulfil their national commitments under the Climate Change Convention, he said. He regretted that at the last meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests of the Commission on Sustainable Development, valuable time and energy had been wasted on revisiting the agreed mandate and the terms of reference for the Panel. Needed were specific sets of activities that would pave the way forward, constructively and with sensitivity for national priorities and strategies, particularly of developing countries.
Noting that the protection of the world's oceans was a major concern for the survival of small island developing States, he said that to protect the oceans and the existence of their communities, the Forum countries had recently endorsed the "Waigani Convention" which banned the importing and transporting of radioactive wastes, and controlled the movement of those wastes in the region.
Referring to the decision by France to resume nuclear testing in the region, he said that decision had been greeted with extreme outrage by the Forum, which had suspended France's dialogue status with it, and had called for testing to cease immediately. The South Pacific countries had joined others in tabling a draft resolution in the First Committee strongly deploring nuclear testing. Nearly 200 detonations had been carried out at Mururoa Atoll. He said those actions in the absence of the necessary environmental impact assessment reports clearly indicated France's failure to comply with its obligations under the Biodiversity Convention and the Noumea Convention, on the protection of natural resources in the South Pacific region. France had legal obligations under those treaties. A comprehensive environmental impact assessment on the cumulative effects of those tests was necessary. Also, the resumption of the tests undermined France's obligations to the precautionary approach explicit in Agenda 21.
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HAMID ALI MOHAMED ELTINAY (Sudan) stressed the connection between poverty and damage to the environment. The Sudan had received a great number of refugees and that had had an impact on its environment.
He went on to review measures taken by his country to protect the environment, he cited a national strategy for the environment which also addressed social issues. Among other measures the strategy had led to joint efforts with UNEP to combat desertification and protect biodiversity. The Sudan had ratified the Convention to Combat Desertification which had given a global dimension to that problem which was closely related with that of food security.
In cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), he continued, the Sudan had implemented a programme in agricultural areas, which had also enjoyed the support of the Netherlands. A project to build new breeding farms had been formulated in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and was waiting approval by GEF. The Sudan had fulfilled its obligations under the Rio commitments. It was regrettable that some viewed the concept of partnership for development with a limited perspective. His country had submitted projects to international financial institutions to which donors had not been receptive for political motives. It would continue to depend on its own resources until the concept of partnership for development became a reality.
C.P. MAINALI (Nepal) said environmental protection had been included in the country's constitution. A high-level environmental protection council had been constituted under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister with the responsibility to supervise and coordinate cross-sectoral and inter- ministerial activities on the environment. Nepal believed the special General Assembly session to review Agenda 21 would be an additional opportune time to assess achievements and to formulate future strategies. The session should reinforce the concept of an integrated approach to environmental and developmental issues.
He said the commitments made by poor countries in the implementation of Agenda 21 required cooperation and support from the developed countries. There was an urgent need for better coordination within the United Nations and its development agencies and the Bretton Woods institutions. Protection of the environment and sustainable development would not be possible in the absence of a clear linkage between social, economic and political issues in the Agenda for Development.
BERHANU KEBEDE (Ethiopia), commenting on desertification and drought, said efforts must be made to resolve urgently the issue of allocation of adequate financial resources and development of operational mechanisms to channel those resources to affected populations in developing countries, particularly those in Africa. Ethiopia had developed a national disaster prevention and management policy together with guidelines for mitigating the
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effects of drought. It had also finalized a national conservation strategy which attempted to harmonize development and environment programmes.
He said the decentralization and democratization process in Ethiopia had created a favourable environment for the participation of the local people in the preparation and implementation of development and environmental protection programmes. National efforts bore fruit when the international community extended support for the establishment of an appropriate institutional structure and promotion of national capacity building.
RESHETNYAK VOLODYMYR (Ukraine) said some progress had been achieved since the Rio conference in the form of environment Conventions and through meetings. Nevertheless, the destruction of the environment was going on more quickly than the ability to combat it. Developing countries required additional resources to implement their environment programmes. He emphasized that responsibility for economic and social development including their environmental aspects, remained the responsibility of the international community.
He said Ukraine, in implementation of the Rio agreements, had drafted legislation on the environment. It valued the work of the Commission for Sustainable Development, and believed that the Commission's potential to monitor implementation of the results of environment-related conferences had not been fully realized. Ukraine supported the special General Assembly session on Agenda 21 and said that non-governmental organizations, scientific and political bodies and the mass media must be involved in its preparatory process.
TAKAO SHIBATA (Japan) said it was important that the outcome of the special Assembly session on Agenda 21 be a negotiated political document which would provide clear guidelines for future actions and priorities in the context of a long-term strategy to be pursued by governments, and intergovernmental and other organizations. The preparatory work for the special session should begin at the 1996 session of the Commission for Sustainable Development and continue in 1997 with the drafting of a political document. The great political momentum achieved during the Rio Conference should be reflected in that special session. Non-governmental organizations should be encouraged to take part in the session, which should be held towards the end of 1997.
Japan was committed to further strengthening of UNEP and was pleased that the agency's Governing Council had reaffirmed the importance of providing the Sustainable Development Commission with effective support.
PAUL ROBERT TIENDREBEOGO (Burkina Faso) said the Rio commitments were far from being fulfilled. "The glass is half filled", he added. Progress had been made but developed country partners had not played their part and that
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was appalling, he said. The 1997 special General Assembly session would be a decisive turning point in addressing the Rio commitments.
Fighting desertification was a priority for Burkina Faso, he continued. He encouraged training and consciousness-raising efforts as valuable tools in combating desertification. A political commitment had been made by his Government through a programme which involved a grassroots network, called "8000 towns, 8000 forests". He appealed to the international community to increase financial resources to organizations involved in combating desertification.
ODYEK AGONA (Uganda) said the world community was witnessing the weakening of the resolve to implement the agreements reached at Rio, and there was a blatant tendency for selective implementation of the Rio undertakings. "Only a paltry $2 billion Global Environment Facility was established", he added. He said the several meetings convened since Rio were notable achievements but had largely addressed procedural issues. Concrete actions should support the efforts of developing countries in the areas of resource flows, trade, debt service and technology.
He said there was an urgent need for an understanding of desertification, and all concerns relating to the phenomenon should be tackled in an integrated way. The lukewarm response of the intergovernmental and multilateral processes to the anti-desertification and drought crusade was regrettable. The collaborative leadership role of UNEP and UNDP and the contribution of the other agencies, while welcomed and appreciated by his Government, fell short, given the magnitude of the problem.
Rights of Reply
JEAN LOUIS RYSTO (France), speaking in exercise of the right of reply, said two delegations had questioned his country's series of nuclear testing and its impact on the environment and on health. Such claims were contrary to all evidence, including that submitted by the European Commission which had concluded that there was no risk for humans or for the environment in those tests. That point had already been made by the President of France at the appropriate forum.
MARK GRAY (Australia) said he disagreed with the points made by France. As explained by the representative of Papua New Guinea, the French nuclear tests posed a threat to humans and to the environment in the South Pacific region. If they did not impose a threat, why were they being conducted so far from metropolitan France. France should acknowledge the overwhelming call by many countries and stop the nuclear testing.
Mr. SAMANA (Papua New Guinea) said there was nothing new in what France had said. If the tests were indeed safe why were they not being carried out in Paris instead of in the South Pacific. Those tests were affecting the
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South Pacific region and its inhabitants. If there was an accident with those tests who would do the clean up? he asked. Who was the enemy in the post-cold war era, he wondered. France must stand by the spirit and the letter of international law.
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