IMPORTANCE OF MEETING 1992 UNCED COMMITMENTS STRESSED IN HIGH-LEVEL SEGMENT OF COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Press Release
ENV/DEV/361
IMPORTANCE OF MEETING 1992 UNCED COMMITMENTS STRESSED IN HIGH-LEVEL SEGMENT OF COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
19960501 The importance of meeting the commitments made at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro was stressed by speakers this afternoon, as the Commission on Sustainable Development continued the high-level segment of its fourth session.The representative of China told the Commission that the special session of the General Assembly planned for 1997 should push for an early fulfilment of those commitments. He noted that instead of achieving the target of 0.7 per cent set at UNCED, overseas development assistance dropped to 0.29 per cent of the gross national product (GNP) of the developed countries in 1995. That figure was the lowest figure since 1973. There was also a lack of progress on the issue of technology transfer, which was being delayed under the pretext of protecting intellectual property rights.
The Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety of Germany, Angela Merkel, said that the international community should commit to full implementation of international agreements to protect the earth's atmosphere. She proposed an ambitious climate protocol for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate change and added that Germany favoured binding obligations for developed countries to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases.
The Secretary-General of the Ministry of the Environment of Finland, Sirkka Hautojarvi, said that her country would consider a timetable for achieving the target of 0.7 per cent of GNP devoted to official development assistance very soon.
The Minister of Environment, Science and Technology of Ghana, Christina Amoako-Nuama, said that developing countries had special needs which should be addressed. Those countries were taking steps to address such needs through measures that frequently exacted heavy social and economic costs, but similar deprivation was not being seen in the consumption patterns and lifestyles of the developed countries.
The Minister of the Environment of Canada, Sergio Marchi, proposed the establishment of a global awards ceremony for environmental achievements at the local level.
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Gudmundur Bjarnason, Minister of the Environment of Iceland, drew attention to the serious threat posed to the global ecosystem and human health by persistent organic pollutants and said that the Commission should support the development of an instrument to develop a global and legally binding instrument for controlling those substances.
The Commissioner for the Environment, Nuclear Safety and Civil Protection of the European Commission said that the relationship between trade and the environment should be closely considered, and the European community was committed to ensuring that environmental improvements not punish developing countries through "eco-duties."
When the Commission meets again at 10 a.m. Thursday, 2 May, it will continue its high-level segment.
Commission Work Programme
The Commission on Sustainable Development met this afternoon to continue the high-level segment of its fourth session. The high-level segment, which is being held at the ministerial level, is reviewing the progress made in achieving the goals set at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro.
Statements
QIN HUASUN (China) said that with the development of its civilization through the millennia, the Chinese nation distilled the folk wisdom that counselled against "fishing by draining the lake" or "hunting by burning the forest". Following UNCED, the Chinese Government had adopted a series of effective follow-up measures, including a 10-point strategy for environmental development. It also completed the formulation of its Agenda 21 in 1994, becoming the first country to put together a national programme of action for development and the environment.
He said that in March the Chinese Congress approved the outline of a ninth five-year plan for economic and social development and the long-term goals for 2010, establishing sustainable development as a major strategy for the country's future stability and prosperity. The document described specific targets for tighter control of agricultural and industrial pollution, improved urban environment management, enhanced management of waterways and river basins, protection of national ecology, vigorous development of ecological agriculture, and urgent adoption of an integrated approach to stem soil erosion and the restoration of forest vegetation.
Certain developed countries had invoked domestic political and economic issues to press their business interests in the field of international cooperation and development and environment, he said. Instead of treating sustainable development as mankind's common commitment and common cause, they used the environment angle as a weapon to impose new trade protectionism, which offset the comparative advantage of the developing countries in natural and human resources and dampened the momentum of their development. That situation was a cause for grave concern for the great majority of the international community.
He said that the special session of the General Assembly should push for an early fulfilment of the commitments made at UNCED. In 1995, official development assistance (ODA) dropped to 0.29 per cent of the gross national product (GNP) of the developed countries, the lowest figure since 1973. There was also a lack of progress on the issue of technology transfer, which was being delayed under the pretext of protecting intellectual property rights. In addition, a tendency to put commercial interests above the common interests of mankind had emerged. The special session should also deal with the major
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issue of international cooperation on environment and development in the spirit of UNCED.
He said that the globalization of economic activities had brought about challenges, as well as opportunities, for the developing countries. Without removing the serious constraints, sustainable development of the developing countries would be nothing but empty talk. The special session should consider the interrelated issues in the overall context of the growth of the world economy.
ANGELA MERKEL, Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety of Germany, said that no country alone could overcome the dangers of climate change, depletion of the ozone layer, the loss of forests and species, and increased pollution. In much of the world, combating poverty was a precondition for sustainable development, and it was a priority task of German development cooperation.
The international community should commit to full implementation of international agreements to protect the earth's atmosphere, she said. An ambitious climate protocol should be adopted for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate change. Germany favoured binding obligations for developed countries to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases. The phase out in production of ozone-depleting substances should not be undermined by their illegal trade. Air pollution was still an urgent problem of human health and the environment. Megacities in developed and developing countries were exposed to a great deal of pollution. Integrated solutions were required, incorporating planning, infrastructure and measures regarding vehicles and fuels.
Regarding the protection of oceans and seas, she said that since UNCED, major agreements had been achieved, notably the Washington Programme of Action, the entry into force of the Convention on the Law of the Sea, and the adoption of the agreement on fish stocks. Among other urgent measures that must be addressed were improved waste water treatment in developing countries and the establishment of a binding international instrument on persistent organic pollutants.
SERGIO MARCHI, Minister of the Environment of Canada, said that in the Arctic regions of Canada, women had polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) levels in their breast-milk seven times higher than women at temperate latitudes. No community in the world, however remote, was free of environmental degradation.
The Commission should consider opening its meeting to more active youth involvement, he said. Why not allow them to co-chair the session next year, bringing their enthusiasm and energy to its work? he asked. Global conferences might not yet be registering at local levels, but they would in time. Initiatives of international environmental citizenship at the local level
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should be emulated. Those stories of hope had been called for by Agenda 21. Canada believed that there should be a global awards ceremony for environmental achievement at the local level.
Canada had adopted new automobile emissions standards aimed at greenhouse gases, he continued. New legislation would also aim to ensure that new industrial chemicals being produced and distributed did not threaten public health. Canada was also pursuing legislation to prevent the introduction of heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants into the Arctic and Great Lakes region.
The nations of the world should sign and ratify the new international agreements aimed at the sustainability of world-wide fish stocks, he said. The earth's clock was ticking. In the six hours that the high-level meeting had been in process, 60 species had become extinct. In the seven minutes of his remarks, some 600,000 tons of greenhouse gases had been emitted into the atmosphere.
SIRKKA HAUTOJARVI, Secretary-General of the Ministry of the Environment of Finland, reaffirmed her country's commitments to the financial commitments set out in chapter 33 of Agenda 21. The Finnish Government would consider a timetable for achieving the target of 0.7 per cent of GNP devoted to ODA very soon. It would carry out an in-depth study on how to make development cooperation environmentally sustainable and would give more focus to environmental projects.
She said that the Commission's work programme should include development of an effective set of market-based policy instruments, like internalization of environmental costs and levies, as well as negotiated or voluntary agreements with the private sector to promote sustainable development. Also, more work was needed on indicators of sustainable development. Working out well-selected indicators would help to clarify sustainable development and to assess the effectiveness of international action. The special session of the General Assembly should mandate the Commission to act as the strategic forum for policy dialogue and coordination.
RIT BJERRAGAARD, Commissioner for the Environment, Nuclear Safety and Civil Protection of the European Commission, said that it was essential that negotiations on the Berlin Mandate be brought to a close at the third Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention. The European Commission had played an important role in helping the European Union work towards meeting its greenhouse gas emission objectives. It was actively working with representatives of the energy and automobile industries to economically reduce emissions and fuel consumption. The community's expenditures on trans-European transport networks was strongly biased towards rail and combined transport, she said.
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The Commission should play an important role in raising international awareness regarding sustainable use of the oceans, she said. The European community's general assistance programme continued to grow. In 1994, ODA amounted to $7.2 billion -- an increase of 22 per cent over the previous year. European Union expenditures on environmental actions outside the Union amounted to $1.2 billion.
The European Union believed that the relationship between trade and the environment should be closely considered, she said. For the "green dimension" of trade to be seriously considered, the First Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Singapore must achieve practical results. The WTO Committee on Trade and Environment must also make real progress. The European Community was committed to ensuring that environmental improvements not punish developing countries through "eco-duties". The Union had revised its General System of Preferences towards that end. Extra preferences would be given from 1998 for countries that adopted and applied sustainable forest criteria.
CHRISTINA AMOAKO-NUAMA, Minister of Environment, Science and Technology of Ghana, said that her country had viewed issues of the environment as important since its participation in the 1972 Stockholm Conference. That led to the establishment of the Environmental Protection Council in 1973, with responsibility for promoting and coordinating national activities on the environment. The Council initiated action towards a National Environmental Action Plan, which was adopted by the Government in 1991. That Plan addressed itself to sustainable development as defined by the World Commission on Environmental Development and incorporated a national environmental policy.
In 1994, Ghana reviewed the enabling legislation of the Environmental Protection Council by transforming it from a purely advisory council into an Environmental Protection Agency, with powers to set standards and formulate, as well as enforce, regulations, she went on. As part of its effort to ensure the necessary institutional capacity to promote sustainable development, Ghana had evolved a Capacity 21 Programme to support the Government's decentralization policy, which would address the true developmental needs of local communities at the district level.
She said that developing countries had special needs which should be addressed by all their partners in the United Nations. The developing countries were taking steps to address those needs through measures which frequently exacted heavy social and economic costs. Such deprivation, on the other hand, was not being seen in the consumption patterns and lifestyles of the developed countries. Ghana believed that sustainable development was the only means through which future generations could benefit from resources that were currently available and being used for development. The success of its programmes would depend on the availability of resources, especially from the private sector and overseas development assistance.
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GUDMUNDUR BJARNASON, Minister of the Environment of Iceland, said that far too often the global significance of the degradation of the marine environment remained highly underrated. Marine issues must be given higher priority in relevant United Nations organizations, and their capacity in that area needed to be strengthened. He welcomed the conclusion of a number of instruments in the area, particularly the Agreement on Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks and the adoption of the Global Programme of Action for Protecting the Marine Environment from Land-Based Sources. When implemented, those instruments would improve the protection of the marine environment, as well as the management and sustainable development of living marine resources.
He said that persistent organic pollutants posed a serious threat to the global ecosystem and human health. The Commission should support the development of an instrument to develop a global and legally binding instrument for controlling those substances. He stressed the link between sustainable development and issues such as population, social development, human settlements, and food security.
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