COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OPENS FOURTH SESSION

Press Release
ENV/DEV/346

COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OPENS FOURTH SESSION

World-wide civil society, especially young people, were evaluating the implementation of Agenda 21 -- the blueprint for sustainable development adopted by the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, and would take part in the work of the fourth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development, Nitin Desai, Under-Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development, told the Commission this morning as it began its work. He said that the honest assessment of young people would make the world "sit up and take notice" when they presented their views to the Commission's high-level segment.

Acting Chairman Henrique Brandao Cavalcanti (Brazil), the Chairman of the third session of the Commission, noted that the Convention on Desertification had been ratified by 115 States and was expected to enter into force next year. No less than 40 activities were being sponsored by Governments and non-governmental organizations as part of the Commission's current session.

Joke Waller Hunter, Director, Division for Sustainable Development, introduced reports to be considered by the Commission. She also introduced the report of the Open-Ended Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Panel on Forests. A representative of the Global Forest Policy Project urged the Panel to move without delay in crafting its policy recommendations.

The representative of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development introduced the report of the Secretary-General on trade environment and sustainable development. The representative of the United Nations Population Fund introduced the report on the implementation of chapter 5 of Agenda 21. The Secretary-General's report on chapter 36 of Agenda 21, "promoting education, public awareness and training, was introduced by a representative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

The representative of Switzerland also made a statement on education for sustainable development.

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1st Meeting (AM) 18 April 1996

Also this morning, the Commission elected Rumen Gechev (Bulgaria) as Chairman for the session and adopted its agenda. The Commission also elected Paul de Jongh (Netherlands) as Vice-Chairman. The election of three other Vice-Chairmen was postponed.

When the Commission meets again at 3 p.m. today, it will continue consideration of the progress in the implementation of Agenda 21, focusing on the cross-sectoral components of Agenda 21 and the critical elements of sustainability.

Commission Work Programme

The Commission on Sustainable development begins the work of its fourth session this morning. It is expected to elect its officers, adopt its agenda and initiate a general discussion on progress in the implementation of Agenda 21, focusing on cross-sectoral components and the critical elements of sustainability. (For background on the present session, see Press Release ENV/DEV/345, issued 17 April.)

A report of the Secretary-General on changing consumption and production patterns (documents E/CN.17/1996/5 and Add.1) states that modern consumption patterns are not compatible with long-term sustainability. In the 1960s and 1970s, concerns centred on the belief that economic growth was inherently limited by the finite nature of non-renewable energy and minerals. Concern has now shifted to unsustainable production processes which have led to the degradation of renewable resources, particularly agricultural resources; accelerating rates of species loss; and the accumulation of emissions and wastes in the environment.

Policy now centres on the concept of "eco-efficiency" -- the creation of an incentive framework for the more efficient utilization of resources and the development of closed-loop production and consumption systems that prevent the escape of wastes into the environment. It is critical to change consumption and production patterns, according to the report, because consumers represent the demand side of the economy, their preferences determining economic output; and because the western consumer lifestyle serves as a model and inspiration to millions of people in developing countries.

The report reviews progress made in implementing the voluntary commitments of Agenda 21 -- the blueprint for sustainable development adopted by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) (Rio de Janeiro, 1992). It states that many developed countries have introduced "take-back" requirements which are expected to accelerate the trend towards higher recycling levels. Energy efficiency and conservation programmes are in place in both developed and developing countries, but those efforts are undermined by the persistence of historically low world energy prices, and of energy subsidies in many countries. Energy intensity is declining in developed countries, but absolute consumption has risen.

The report profiles selected consumption and production trends and forecasts resource consumption. It assesses the impact on developing countries of changes in consumption and production in developed countries, focusing on eco-labelling, environmental management standards, economic trends, materials efficiency and waste management, as well as changing behaviour. It also outlines progress made in implementing voluntary commitments in industrialized countries, Central and Eastern Europe,

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developing countries, business and industry, non-governmental organizations and international organizations.

The report also refers to the revision of the United Nations Guidelines for Consumer Protection. The Commission, at its third session, recommended expansion of the 1985 Guidelines to include guidelines on sustainable development. The revised guidelines are now being drafted, and will be discussed later by the Commission.

The report of the Commission's ad hoc intersessional working group on finance and changing consumption and production patterns (document E/CN.17/1996/10) states that the working group noted the trend towards a global consensus on the importance of changing consumption and production patterns. In discussing the Secretary-General's report on changing consumption and production patterns, the working group agreed that industrialized countries should take the lead, demonstrating that resource efficient, low pollution consumption and production patterns were essential to sustainable development. The working group urged the international community to provide financial resources and environmentally sound technologies to developing countries. It also urged that more attention be given to the role of media organizations in shaping unsustainable consumption and production patterns, as well as to the role that they could play in changing such patterns. It called for further exploration of the concept of "eco-efficiency", while noting that initiatives in that area were not a substitute for changes in unsustainable consumer lifestyles.

The working group reaffirmed the importance of national and international policy development in the area of changing consumption and production patterns, in particular on such questions as trade impacts, technology transfer and foreign direct investment. The working group stressed the need for external support for developing countries, as well as the importance of the transfer of technology and the development of entrepreneurial skills for sustainable development.

Regarding financial issues, the working group emphasized the need to fulfil all financial recommendations and commitments of Agenda 21, especially those related to the provision of substantial and predictable, new and additional financial resources to developing countries. The effectiveness of official development assistance (ODA) should be improved by the leveraging of private-sector investments from national and external sources, which could be achieved by co-financing and other partnership arrangements. The working group emphasized that bilateral aid agencies, United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, the Bretton Woods institutions and other multilateral financial institutions should become more proactive in promoting sustainable development.

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The working group acknowledged the positive aspects of the expansion of foreign private capital flows to some developing countries, while, at the same time, expressing concern about their volatility and distribution. Foreign private capital flows should complement, but not substitute for ODA. The ability of developing countries to attract private flows depended on a solution to their external debt problems. The potential of debt-for-nature and debt-for-development swaps and related mechanisms for assisting in the financing of sustainable development should be further examined.

Some countries had shown considerable progress in mobilizing domestic financial resources, but external resources, including ODA, remained essential for achieving sustainable development, according to the report. Towards that end, sound and predictable macroeconomic and environmental policies at the national and international levels reduced risks for private investors. Governments should strive to develop their domestic financial markets to strengthen national saving capacity and mobilize resources.

The working group discussed the feasibility of various innovative mechanisms for financing sustainable development and meeting the needs of developing countries, including an internationally agreed tax on air transport, international carbon taxes, activities implemented jointly as they related to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and tradable carbon dioxide permit schemes. The working group noted that there might be other innovative mechanisms that should be considered in such studies, including in the area of international transportation of oil, toxic substances and hazardous materials.

The working group emphasized that financing for environmentally sound technologies should come from national public and private resources; external resources, such as ODA and foreign direct investment; and innovative mechanisms, such as venture capital and trust funds.

A report of the Secretary-General on trade, environment and sustainable development (document E/CN.17/1996/8) said that the Commission may wish to develop instruments to facilitate financial and technology transfers to developing countries in order to assist them in meeting multilaterally agreed sustainable development targets. The Commission may wish to recommend that positive measures are preferable to the threat of trade restrictions. It also may wish to encourage governments to ensure coordination between trade and environment officials with a view to promoting policy compatibility and avoiding conflicts among treaties in which they participate.

The Secretary-General suggests that the Commission invite the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to initiate an intergovernmental process aimed at developing comprehensive non-binding guidelines incorporating legal, economic and development considerations to assist environmental negotiators. He also

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recommends that the Commission firmly reject "green countervailing duties" or other protectionist trade measures inconsistent with the World Trade Organization principles; recommend that developed countries facilitate market access for developing countries and provide them with technical and financial assistance directed towards environmental capacity-building; and encourage UNCTAD at its ninth session to support developing countries to achieve sustainable development.

The report of the Secretary-General also contains recommendations regarding "eco-labelling", the export of domestically prohibited goods, trade liberalization and the environment, sustainable development of the commodity sector, biodiversity and trade, technology transfer, capacity-building and institutional issues.

A report of the Secretary-General on combatting poverty (document E/CN.17/1996/9) states that in follow-up to the World Summit for Social Development (Copenhagen, 1995) and in conjunction with the observation of the 1996 International Year for the Eradication of Poverty, governments have been urged to formulate and strengthen their strategies for poverty eradication. It suggests that the Commission recommend that those strategies include, as appropriate, linkages to environmental issues.

Poverty and environmental degradation are seen as partially the result of tendencies inherent in contemporary economic systems to externalize the environmental and social costs of market-driven economic activities, the report states. Improved understanding of the causal links between poverty, population and other socio-economic and environmental variables could facilitate improved measurements of poverty.

According to the report, the important roles played by major groups, including non-governmental organizations, in implementing poverty eradication programmes have been recognized. Governments, international organizations and other donor communities are urged to cooperate with local and international non-governmental organizations and other major groups. The Commission may wish to continue to focus its work on linkages between poverty and the environment in light of the outcomes of the major conferences and of further consideration planned by the Economic and Social Council on when it considers the coordination of United Nations poverty-eradication activities.

A report of the Secretary-General on demographic dynamics and sustainability (documents E/CN.17/1996/10 and Add.1) states that both UNCED and the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994) had highlighted critical linkages between population issues and developmental and environmental issues. The Secretary-General recommends that the Commission urge governments to continue to support research on the linkages between population, poverty, consumption and production, environment and national resources, education and health as a guide to effective sustainable

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development; and that it recognize the importance of the full and equal participation of women in all aspects of sustainable development and urge governments to incorporate the recommendations of the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action adopted at the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women.

The report also states that the Commission may wish to urge governments to pay full attention to the importance of institution-building in the field of population, environment and development with a view to achieving the prompt integration of population concerns into sustainable development planning and policies. It recommends that the Commission encourage governments to formulate and implement effective strategies in the field of population, environment, and sustainable development; and that they be invited to involve the private sector and civil society, including non-governmental organizations, in those efforts.

The currently accepted view among most experts is that levels of population, consumption patterns and the nature of technology are the three major factors which determine the effects of development on the environment, according to the report. Efforts to slow down population growth, to reduce poverty, to achieve economic progress, to improve environmental protection, and to reduce unsustainable consumption and production patterns are mutually reinforcing.

A report of the Secretary-General on integrating environment and development in decision-making document (E/CN.17/1996/11) states that governments should continue their efforts to establish national commissions for sustainable development and that organizations in the United Nations system should support such efforts by establishing a code of "best practices" on sustainable development strategies.

High priority should be placed on actions aimed at supporting national coordination and planning activities related to the implementation of Agenda 21, according to the report. Guidelines for national programme execution should be published, and support should be given to developing the legal capacities of developing countries, particularly as regards reviews of national legislation related to sustainable development and to implementing international agreements.

Further work was necessary regarding integrated economic and environmental accounting, particularly methodological development for consensus-building; promoting the implementation of national programmes by supporting and motivating national statistical services; and strengthening technical cooperation.

A report of the Secretary-General on the role of major groups in the implementation of Agenda 21 (document E/CN.17/1996/12) states that such groups continue to demonstrate their commitments to Agenda 21 follow-up through

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dissemination, collection and analysis of information, networking, linking international processes to the Commission, technical assistance, and through participation in programmes that help actors from governmental, non- governmental and intergovernmental forums to develop partnerships.

The report suggests a series of policy strategies that major groups may wish to pursue regarding information dissemination and collection, participatory arrangements and programme support. It states that major groups continue to show a sustained commitment to the goals of Agenda 21. More than 100 organizations provided inputs to the fourth session of the Commission, more than twice the number that reported last year. Major groups continued to be active in the Commission itself, including in its intersessional meetings, in national decision-making processes, and in national coordination mechanisms.

A report of the Secretary-General on the transfer of environmentally sound technologies, cooperation and capacity-building (document E/CN.17/1996/13 and Add.1) provides an update on the steps taken and results achieved on the implementation of the work programme on the transfer of environmentally sound technology approved by the Commission on Sustainable Development at its third session. The work programme focused on three related areas: improving access to and dissemination of information on environmentally sound technology; capacity-building and institutional development; and financial and partnership arrangements.

The report encourages governments of developed and developing countries and economies in transition to develop and implement an appropriate mix of policy instruments for stimulating the adoption of cleaner production technologies and improved, more efficient systems of production that emphasize the prevention of pollution and the minimization of waste.

According to the report, improved access to private capital will be a key to success in providing environmentally sustainable technology opportunities for improving the environmental performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises. Governments should apply appropriate measures that would assist small- and medium-sized enterprises in gaining access to private financial markets and would provide incentives to stimulate environmentally sustainable technology investments.

Another report by the Secretary-General on promoting education, public awareness and training (document E/CN.17/1996/14 and Add.1) reviews the implementation of chapter 36 of Agenda 21. It assesses the current status and progress since UNCED as well as the constraints to implementation. It proposes that the Commission recommend that governments, major groups and the United Nations system promote a lifelong learning society by ensuring democratic access by all to education, information and learning materials.

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It also proposes that governments, major groups and the United Nations system develop an integrated approach to implementing chapter 36 of Agenda 21 in conjunction with other relevant chapters, as well as with relevant sections of the action plans of the other recent major United Nations conferences (especially the International Conference on Population and Development, the World Summit for Social Development and the Fourth World Conference on Women), and of the conventions dealing with biological diversity, climate change and desertification.

The report adds that investments in education and training made by national and international institutions should reflect the real value and impact of education in achieving sustainable development by improving both socio-economic development and environmental conditions.

The report of the Secretary-General on capacity-building for sustainable development (document E/CN.17/1996/15) reviews recent trends in capacity- building, including progress and constraints. It also details current issues and priority issues for consideration by the Commission.

According to the report, the previous emphasis on capacity-building for the design of national plans and strategies has continued. Many countries, such as Bolivia, Canada, China, Pakistan and Swaziland, now have experience with the formulation of Agenda 21 strategies, national conservation strategies and environmental action plans. National capacities to involve a wider cast of stakeholders and to produce multi-sectoral action plans have improved substantially since UNCED, and there is now a solid body of operational experience which can inform and guide current efforts.

Noting that unless all the participants, including donors, are prepared to focus more systematically on enhancing indigenous skills and abilities and to accept the implications of doing so, the progress of capacity-building issues will remain halting; the report urges the Commission to call on the donor community at large to make capacity-building a more central objective and to adjust its planning, programming, monitoring and evaluation procedures and focus on staff training accordingly.

In another report entitled institutional arrangements to follow up the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (document E/CN.17/1996/16), the Secretary-General details the institutional structures that are in place as a follow-up to UNCED. The report provides an overview in table form of progress made since the Conference in the institutional arrangements within the United Nations system, by bilateral organizations, regional organizations and financial institutions. The structures include the General Assembly; the Economic and Social Council; the Commission on Sustainable Development; the High-level Advisory Board on Sustainable Development; the Secretariat support structure; organs, programmes and

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organizations of the United Nations system; and International financial organizations.

The report of the Secretary-General on International legal instruments and mechanisms (document E/CN.17/1996/17 and Add.1) focuses on new and emerging issues as well as trends relating to chapter 39 of Agenda 21.

It states that given the importance of the principles of international law for sustainable development and of taking an integrated approach to international law in all courts, tribunals, other dispute settlement bodies and other forums responsible for the interpretation of treaties, the principles and concepts contained in the report of the expert group meeting on the identification of principles of international law for sustainable development should be studied and developed in relation to the formulation of new instruments, including soft-law instruments, and the interpretation and application of existing instruments, related to sustainable development.

The report proposes that the Commission return to the subject for fuller consideration at its sixth session.

The report gives an overview of developments in the field of international legal instruments and mechanisms since 1993, when the Commission reviewed chapter 39 at its second session.

The overview covers new international legal instruments and mechanisms, new standards and codes of conduct, effective integration of environmental and developmental issues, implementation, monitoring and compliance, participation of developing countries, financial and technical assistance, dispute avoidance and settlement, coordination and consistency among international legal instruments.

In his report on information for decision-making (document E/CN.17/1996/18 and Add.1), the Secretary-General reviews the progress achieved as well as the main policy issues and experiences in relation to chapter 40 of Agenda 21 which is concerned with improving the content, format and accessibility of information for decision makers at all levels.

The report invites governments, on a voluntary basis, to take the primary responsibility for the further testing, development and use of indicators of sustainable development, based on the work done to date on identifying the indicators and preparing the corresponding methodology sheets.

It urges governments, in undertaking the pilot testing phase, to work in partnership with other countries in testing and further developing the indicators of sustainable development. In addition, the Commission should welcome follow-up to its decision on common and compatible systems of access to data, including the further work on establishing common access to United

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Nations system databases by setting up a sustainable development home page on the World Wide Web, with hot links to the value-added databases to be identified by the Agenda 21 task managers.

The report also reviews the progress achieved, main policy issues and experiences in the area of information. It covers the establishment of coherent information programmes at the national level; strengthening of the United Nations system-wide Earthwatch; delivery of information on sustainable development to small island developing States; measures for establishing a common or compatible system for access to respective databases of United Nations system organizations; as well as efforts to coordinate and harmonize the provision of information to decision makers.

Annexed to the report is a proposed set of principles for a data access policy and a list of World Wide Web addresses related to the United Nations system-wide Earthwatch and other sustainable development sources.

A report of the Secretary-General on national information (document E/CN.17/1996/16) states that over the past three years, the Secretariat has received reports from 73 governments and 10 intergovernmental organizations. In addition, 87 countries have provided information on their national coordination contacts. The Secretariat is preparing country profiles for those countries for the special session of the Assembly to be held in June 1997. It is hoped that the national reports would form the basis of future monitoring and reporting. Country profiles will contain brief summaries reflecting the status of action by each country on all 40 chapters of Agenda 21.

The Commission also has before it a note verbale from Malaysia (document E/CN.17/1996/30), transmitting a report of the first Global 500 Forum International Conference entitled "Towards Corporate Environmental Excellence - Challenges and Opportunities in Asia-Pacific", which was held in Kuala Lumpur in October 1995. The objectives of the conference were to promote the role of business in sustainable development; to encourage the corporate sector to pro-actively address environmental challenges; to enhance business opportunities through green management policies; to foster cooperation between business and the public; and to set an agenda for corporate excellence.

The conference attracted 350 participants from 30 countries, including corporate leaders, entrepreneurs, policy makers, environmentalists and others interested in corporate environmental excellence.

Statements

HENRIQUE CAVALCANTI (Brazil), the Acting Chairman and Chairman of the Commission's third session, said that the Convention on Desertification had

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now been ratified by 115 countries and was expected to enter into force next year. Also, no less than 40 activities were being sponsored by governments and non-governmental organizations as part of the Commission's current session. The Commission was a constructive instrument for the achievement of peace. Agenda 21 was a product of environmental awareness.

Following his election as Chairman, RUMEN GECHEV, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Economic Development of Bulgaria, said that important events that had occurred since the last session of the Commission included the First Conference of Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Second Conference of Parties of the Convention on Biodiversity and the Conference on the Protection of Marine Environment from Land-based Activities. The open-ended intergovernmental panel on forests set up by the Commission at its last session had also begun work.

He said that the Commission's present session was of great importance, not only because it would finalize its programme of work, thus concluding the first full cycle in monitoring implementation of all chapters of Agenda 21, but also because it would serve as the bridge to the preparations for the 1997 special session of the General Assembly that would review the five-year progress achieved after the 1992 Earth Summit held in Rio.

He said that during the current session, the Commission would need to translate into agreed conclusions and recommendations the outcomes of two of its ad hoc working groups which dealt with the protection of atmosphere and oceans as well as financing of sustainable development and promoting sustainable production and consumption patterns. The Commission would also consider in-depth matters related to education for sustainable development as well as progress in the implementation of the outcome of the Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States (Barbados, 1994). It would also need to take stock of progress in the implementation of its work programme in the areas of transfer of environmentally sound technologies and the elaboration of sustainable development indicators.

NITIN DESAI, Under-Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development, said that the work of the Commission had come to be something of a "family reunion". Cooperative solutions to shared problems, addressed in a collegial manner, had characterized the Commission's work. The work of the non-governmental sector was critical to that process.

World-wide civil society, including young people, were evaluating the implementation of Agenda 21 and would take part in the work of the present session, he said. Their honest assessment would make the world "sit up and take notice" when they presented their views to the Commission's high-level segment.

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As a consequence of the United Nations financial crisis, a series of savings measures would affect the work of the current session, he said. It would be impossible to provide Secretariat staff to support meetings beyond 6 p.m. There may also be some problems with documentation, particularly if documents needed to be translated over weekends. Regarding the ongoing restructuring of the United Nations, he said that the Organization was stressing coordination of follow-up measures to the various global conferences. The Commission should take that into account in its work as well.

The Commission may wish to concentrate on areas in which there were "institutional gaps" in the Secretariat, he continued. Two such areas were those related to freshwater resources and oceans. One contribution that the Commission could make might be to address economic issues which were normally dealt with in isolation. It may be able to inject economic views into topics which were usually considered as purely resource or environmental issues. An example of this at the current session might be the Commission's discussion of energy issues when it would take up the chapter of Agenda 21 dealing with the atmosphere.

BARBARA BRAMBLE, of the Global Forest Policy Project, said that the second session of the intergovernmental panel on forest stood as a model for cooperation. It was still early in the life of the panel, with only two sessions completed, but it only had one more working session before it had to produce action-oriented recommendations. The panel should move without delay to craft those recommendations.

The third session of the panel would be dominated by discussions of the timber trade and related matters. The majority of government-sponsored initiatives were also focused on trade-related subjects. Trade issues were important, but they were only one element of the panel's comprehensive agenda. If the panel continued to move in that narrowing direction, she said, it would not fulfil its mandate and would be regarded a failure.

RENE VOSSENAAR, representative of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), introduced the report of the Secretary-General on the trade environment and sustainable development. The inter-agency committee on sustainable development had suggested that particular attention be paid to trade measures relating to the trade environment and the World Trade Organization rules.

He suggested that the Commission might consider the development of a greater range of measures for technology transfer to developing countries to assist them in meeting environmental goals. The report paid attention to the relationship between trade liberalization and the environment. Although no link had been established, it was possible that trade liberalization could

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lead to environment degradation or to improvements in environmental protection.

SETHURAMIAH L.N. RAO, Chief, Technical Division of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said that the main focus of the report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of chapter 5 of Agenda 21, concerning demographic dynamics and sustainability, was on factors that influenced the process of demographic transition and were, therefore, important to the achievement of sustainable development and of a balance between population and resources. Those factors included government support for population policies and programmes, and for gender issues, especially the achievement of gender equity and equality.

Based on 79 responses to an inquiry sent by the UNFPA to some 120 field offices, the report found that a growing majority of governments considered population policies and programmes important to the achievement of sustainable development. That was reflected both in general statements of support and in actions taken to give structure and substance to that commitment. New plans were being formulated and dormant plans had been re-activated in line with the new reproductive health/family planning approach of the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action.

He said that a sound population policy usually comprised activities in several sectors and that progress did not always succeed at the same pace in each. The sector of gender equity and equality had only recently made its entry into the population policies of most countries.

He said that the report's recommendations addressed the need for continued research into the linkages between population, poverty, consumption and production, environment and national resources; formulation and implementation of effective strategies for information, education and communication; support for full and equal participation of women in sustainable development activities; the importance of institution- and capacity-building; and the involvement of non-governmental organizations, the private sector and civil society in sustainable development.

GUSTAVO LOPEZ OSPINA, Director, Transdisciplinary Project on Environment and Population, Education and Information Development of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), introduced the report of the Secretary-General on chapter 36 of Agenda 21 on promoting education, public awareness and training.

He said that the report drew the Commission's attention to a whole new vision of education, public awareness and training that had been emerging since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio. It was important to understand that new vision in order for governments, the United Nations system and major groups to mobilize for effective action. The new orientation called for consideration

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of how education for sustainable development fit within the overall question of reform of educational systems worldwide. It also reaffirmed, broadened and deepened the importance given to education in Agenda 21.

The UNESCO would continue to give the highest priority to education for sustainable development, to mobilize the energies and talents of today and tomorrow, without forgetting the important work which had sown the seeds for its future action.

ROBERTO L. LENTON, representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), presented the report of the Secretary-General on capacity- building and sustainable development. He said that the report dealt with inherent issues that cut across all efforts to build capacity. It also noted the progress that had been made in capacity-building and the constraints that had been encountered. Those constraints were mostly institutional in nature.

The report pointed out the need for better tools and technologies for better improved capacity-building, he continued. There was also a need for institutional sustainability. The report also presented key issues for specific consideration by the Commission and recommended that it encourage research and group efforts at capacity-building as well as action to disseminate the results of successful capacity-building programmes.

JOKE WALLER HUNTER, Director, Division for Sustainable Development, introduced other reports of the Secretary-General under consideration by the Commission.

MONICA LOCHER (Switzerland) said that education was essential for the public to grasp the complex issues of sustainable development. In her country, a new global approach to environmental education was allowing schools to move forward a national platform of education for sustainable development. A publication called the "Passport to the Future" demonstrated different ways that the public could be educated in sustainable development. The aim was to communicate with the public using a minimum of technical jargon and a maximum of concrete examples.

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