FOCUS OF COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT TOO NARROW, UNITED STATES TELLS COMMISSION'S HIGH-LEVEL SEGMENT

2 May 1996

Press Release
ENV/DEV/362

FOCUS OF COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT TOO NARROW, UNITED STATES TELLS COMMISSION'S HIGH-LEVEL SEGMENT

19960502 Commission Should Look Equally at Economic, Social, Environmental Aspects; Official Development Assistance, Private Sector Participation Also Addressed

The Commission on Sustainable Development had taken an overly narrow view of its work, focusing on the environment while only paying "lip service" to the economic and social aspects of sustainable development, the Commission was told today as it continued its high-level segment.

The Under-Secretary of State for Global Affairs of the United States, Timothy E. Wirth, told the Commission that, as a consequence of its narrow focus, it had unnecessarily duplicated the work of other bodies, such as the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Instead, the Commission should be more broadly focused, looking equally at all three aspects of sustainability. It should bring together policy-makers involved in finance, commerce, the environment and other disciplines. It should also shifts its focus to such cross-sectoral issues as the sustainability of cities and the world's food supply.

The Deputy Minister of the Environment and the Protection of Nature of Senegal, Mbaye Ndoye, told the Commission that Agenda 21 had targeted official development assistance as an essential element of sustainability. The downward trend in assistance was taking place at the very moment when it was most needed for sustainable economic growth.

The Secretary of State for the Environment of the United Kingdom, John Gummer, told the Commission that it discussed too many subjects, and those tended to be discussed in isolation. The United Nations should elaborate sustainable development plans that cut right across different issues.

The Minister of Science, Technology and Environment of Malaysia, Dato Law Hieng Ding, said that the private sector should be encouraged to actively participate in the financing of sustainable development with targeted tax relief. Balanced environmental and trade policies could benefit both sectors. Environmental concerns should not be used as an excuse for restraining trade.

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Also speaking before the Commission this morning were: the Minister of Interior of Switzerland; the Minister of Environment, Natural Resources and Fisheries of Mexico; the Minister of the Environment of Sweden; the Minister of Environment and Health of Barbados; the Minister of the Environment of the Slovak Republic; the Minister of Energy and Environment of Costa Rica; the Vice Prime Minister of Belarus; the Secretary of Natural Resources and the Human Environment of Argentina; the Minister of Science, Technology and Environment of Cuba; and the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment of Thailand.

The Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization also made a statement.

When it meets again today at 3 p.m., the Commission will continue its high-level segment.

Commission Work Programme

The Commission on Sustainable Development met this morning 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

RUTH DREIFUSS, Minister of Interior of Switzerland, said that in 1993, her Government set up an interdepartmental committee for the follow-up to UNCED. That committee worked in close relation with all major groups such as the private sector, the research community and non-governmental organizations.

She said that in was impossible to implement a programme as ambitious as Agenda 21 without strong support from all sectors of the society. Massive efforts for information and sensitization of the public, and especially the youth, on key issues of sustainable development were of utmost importance. The Swiss Government had launched a major campaign targeted at the youth to develop interactive modes of communication in order to encourage young people to formulate their own views and ideas on global issues of sustainable development.

Switzerland had committed itself to stabilize its carbon dioxide emissions at the 1990 level by the year 2000, she continued. A programme of efficient and rational use of energy, called "Energy 2000", was launched in 1991. Further reduction would require additional measures. The Government was drafting legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

She added that her country was ready to commit itself to give more support to developing countries to increase their capacity to formulate coherent policies on trade and environment issues. Ways should also be considered to improve those capacity to commercialize ecologically rational products.

JULIA CARABIAS, Minister of Environment, Natural Resources and Fisheries of Mexico, said that it was necessary to make maximum use of positive results that could come out of integration of the environment into sectoral policies. The integration of the environment into sectoral policies might contribute to helping to evaluate the progress being made towards sustainable development. There was a need to sensitize public opinion by making information available on the steps being taken. She described the drastic slashing of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) budget as alarming. That situation had resulted in UNEP's programmes being adversely affected in Latin America. Mexico took a positive view of having non-governmental organizations involved in UNEP's work.

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She proposed that the Commission should see to it that the developing countries' particular problems in achieving sustainable development were taken into account in the effort to achieve sustainable development. There was a need to define a series of key criteria for sustainable development. Intensive effort was also required at the national level to change the approach to sustainable development. All countries had to make maximum effort to turn things around.

JOHN GUMMER, Secretary of State for the Environment of the United Kingdom, said that global fish stocks were one of the best indicators of sustainability. There were more international disputes over fishing than over any other issue. Even close partners "fall out" over that issue. The United States and Canada were arguing over salmon; European Union partners had nearly started a shooting war over the issue. Negotiations on fish were usually considered a success only if they allowed yet more fishing, despite the fact of world-wide damage being done to fish stocks.

The Commission discusses too many subjects; members nitpicked over language and commitments, he went on to say. Too many decisions were made that would never be read beyond a small number of United Nations aficionados. There was a tendency for governments to argue with each other rather than concentrating on solutions to global problems that the larger international community could notice.

Issues tended to be discussed in isolation, he said. The upcoming second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) in Istanbul dealt with cities; the World Food Summit in Rome in November would deal with food security. Both conferences should take into account the environmental issues that impacted on those topics. The United Nations was an organization that tended to take action in isolated compartments without integrating sustainable development plans that cut right across different issues.

The UNEP should be a strong organization with a powerful political voice, he said. That was why the United Kingdom was such a strong campaigner for the changes that UNEP needed. If UNEP was to be successful, the special session of the General Assembly next year should reaffirm Agenda 21; there should be no re-negotiation or backsliding.

DATO LAW HIENG DING, Minister of Science, Technology and Environment of Malaysia, said that ever since UNCED, his Government had maintained that developing countries needed assistance to make the transition to sustainable development; that developed countries should take measures towards sustainable lifestyles; and that the global community should collectively address common threats to sustainable development by invoking and practising the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.

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The private sector should be encouraged to actively participate in the financing of sustainable development, he said; tax relief may serve as a catalyst for that participation. But official development assistance (ODA) still had an important role to play, particularly in countries that had not fully benefited from private investment and markets. Malaysia was interested in how trade could contribute to sustainable development and environmental enhancement. Balanced environmental and trade policies could benefit both sectors. It was easier to control environmental degradation in a growing economy than in a stagnant one.

It was critical that environmental concerns not be used as an excuse for restraining trade. He was concerned over unilateral and discriminatory measures being undertaken by some countries.

ANNA LINDH, Minister of the Environment of Sweden said that local governments in Sweden were implementing Agenda 21 by using battery-driven automobiles, recycling waste and educating children in sustainability. Freshwater issues would be crucial to the work of the special session of the General Assembly next year. The special session should seek to elaborate an instrument similar to the UNCED forest principles.

The next 50 years would be crucial to the long-term survival of mankind, she said. A new concept of global security was emerging, focusing on the integrity of global ecosystems. The military sector had to recognize their responsibility for the environment. The struggle against poverty would be a central goal of this new security concept.

ELIZABETH TH0OPSON, Minister of Environment and Health of Barbados said that in undertaking sustainable development programmes, small island developing States had been constrained by a lack of expert personnel trained in coastal zone management, equipment, and technology for data collection and analysis. Small islands also needed to concentrate on the design of waste management systems, sanitary landfills and waste treatment plants in order to reduce the contamination of oceans with land-based pollutants.

Barbados supported the work of the UNEP Caribbean Environmental Programme, in its efforts to develop a regional protocol on protecting oceans from land-based sources of marine pollutions. Barbados was annually confronted by weather systems that demonstrated the inseparable relationship between oceanographic and atmospheric ecological systems. Clearly, human activities were affecting the global climate. An international system should be established to monitor and manage climate change and sea-level rise.

Barbados was using locally manufactured solar-energy systems to heat water for residential buildings. It was also exporting those systems. Small island States should exchange information and experiences, and human resources, so that all small island States could benefit. A computer network,

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"SIDS-Net" was an excellent exchange mechanism, though some island States had limited funds with which to purchase computers.

JOSEF ZLOCHA, Minister of Environment of the Slovak Republic, said that his country was rich in mineral waters and hot springs used for curative purposes. It was also the first European country to adopt an arrangement setting up transregional ecological zones. There were nine areas with heavily damaged environment in the Slovak Republic.

He said that the Parliament had adopted a new act on nature and environmental protection. Under the act, the country had been divided into areas and territorial units with each enjoying one of five levels of legal protection. Such legal protection would go beyond the year 2000. His country had five national parks and 16 protected areas. Forests covered 40 per cent of the country's territory and the area of the protected forests was increasing. To preserve those forests, an attempt was being made to manage the country's water resources. The country was still facing the problem of tree defoliation which was affecting 27 per cent of the forest.

He said that following the introduction of the production and use of unleaded gasoline, pollution due to emissions from leaded gasoline had declined by 60 per cent. The Slovak Republic was committed to complying with the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal. It had introduced legislation governing waste and the environment.

The Slovak Republic produced its first report on the state of the environment in the Slovak Republic in 1993, he said. It had also worked out national programme on environmental development.

RENE CASTRO SALAZAR, Minister of Energy and Environment of Costa Rica, on behalf of the "Group of 77" developing countries and China, said that his country was promoting a national policy of biodiversity. The promotion of that policy had transformed his country into a research centre with many researchers coming from other countries to work there. In July 1995, a decree created a project requiring the inventory and the classification of all the species in Costa Rica.

He announced that the Government had established an independent office for action on climate change. It was also coordinating activities for an international seminar to be held in San José with the aim of promoting the creation of an international court on the environment.

He said that it was the view of the Group of 77 and China that, in terms of international cooperation, there were still activities which inhibited the implementation of Agenda 21. Assistance, instead of growing, had actually declined. The developing countries had been able to achieve very little. The

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application of unilateral protection had also affected international trade. He called for special stress on the mobilization of resources and reiterated the appeal for the fulfilment of the commitments under Agenda 21.

VLADZIMIR GARKUN, Vice-Prime Minister of Belarus, said that global ecological threats required global responses. National participation was also required in the implementation of sustainable development. His country attached importance to the strengthening of national potential in sustainable development.

He said that his country had prepared a series of national reports on the state of the environment in Belarus. The country was facing dire consequences because of the Chernobyl disaster. It was now devoting up to 20 per cent of its national budget to post-Chernobyl clean-up. It was also striving to implement its international legal commitments and to develop new partnerships in the context of Agenda 21.

MARIA JULIA ALSOGARAY, Secretary of Natural Resources and the Human Environment of Argentina, said that there was no way that sustainable development could move forward without appropriate economic machinery. Sustainable production and use of natural resources was difficult to achieve through the United Nations, in which various sectors seemed to be working in isolation from each other. She was concerned that the Commission could turn into a purely political forum, rather than a coordination mechanism. There also seemed to be an attempt to rewrite Agenda 21. The international community should rededicate its commitment to that document. Argentina believed that the goals of Agenda 21 still remained valid.

The Commission should be the primary coordinating body for the work being done in various United Nations agencies. The Organization seemed to be dominated by a feudal system in which everyone was protecting their on fiefdoms. Boundaries between agencies should be eliminated. The concept of biodiversity should not be weakened by economic adjustments, she said. The only way to preserve biodiversity was to discover a sustainable way to withdraw those resources from the environment without destroying it.

ROSA ELENA SIMEON NEGRIN, Minister of Science, Technology and Environment of Cuba, said that the main cause of global environmental damage had been leaving the environment in the hands of the markets. Cuba was concerned at reductions in ODA and believed that transfers of resources technology were payments on the environmental debt of developed countries.

The first environmental achievement in Cuba had been to eradicate extreme poverty and illiteracy, she said. Some 70 per cent of Cubans today were educated at the twelfth grade level; her country had 1.8 scientists and engineers for every thousand persons and life expectancy was over 75 years. Since the UNCED, Cuba had achieved positive results in the use of sustainable

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agricultural practices, waste recycling, the restoration of beaches and other mechanisms.

The reality of Cuba today would be different were it not hindered by an "inhuman and illegal financial, commercial and technical blockade", she said. In violation of the principles of Agenda 21, forms of extraterritorial pressure were violating Cuba's sovereignty. Cuba believed that the 1997 General Assembly special session would be of great importance. In that regard, the Commission should consolidate its role as the political follow-up to UNCED.

MBAYE NDOYE, Deputy Minister of the Environment and the Protection of Nature of Senegal, said that poverty, drought and natural disasters all affected the achievement of sustainable development. Policies for the preservation of nature often conflicted with the poverty of rural populations. Agenda 21 had targeted ODA as an essential element of sustainability in developing countries. Unfortunately, there was a world-wide downward trend in ODA at the very moment when they were most needed for sustainable economic growth.

Agenda 21 had represented an unprecedented global consensus, he said. Senegal hoped that the General Assembly special session next year would allow a close examination of the ways and means for progress on universal sustainable development.

TIMOTHY E. WIRTH, Under-Secretary of State for Global Affairs of the United States, said that his Government had placed global environmental concerns into the mainstream of its foreign policy. The ultimate peace and prosperity of mankind would depend upon the safeguarding of the environment. Since Rio, a whole new language of diplomacy had emerged around the concept of sustainability. Growing participation by the non-governmental organizations and intergovernmental cooperation on the environment had also been major achievements.

The greatest flaw in the work of the Commission on Sustainable Development had been its narrow view of the concept of sustainable development, he said. It had focused almost entirely on the environmental aspects of sustainable development, while only paying "lip service" to the economic and social aspects of the equation. In consequence, it had unnecessarily duplicated the work of other bodies, such as the UNEP.

The Commission should be more broadly focused, looking equally at all three aspects of sustainability, he continued. It should bring together policy-makers involved in finance, commerce, environment and other disciplines. It should shift its focus away from sectoral issues to the cross-sectoral ones, like the empowerment of women, sustainable cities, population growth and consumption rates and sustainability in the world's food

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supply. The Commission should also focus more on finance. Decreased ODA was a fact of life, as was an unprecedented increase in foreign direct investment; private investment last year had been twice as large as ODA.

The Commission should become a mini-General Assembly on environmental issues, he said. Perhaps, it should be raised to the level of a functional committee of the Economic and Social Council. It should also provide policy guidance for UNEP. Over the next two years, difficult negotiations on climate change would be undertaken. Those negotiations must have a sense of urgency, based upon the unprecedented scientific consensus on that issue.

KASEM SNIDVONGS, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment of Thailand, said that his country's system of national planning for social and economic development went back 35 years. As early as 1971, its national plans began to emphasize the need to control pollution and conserve natural resources. A National Environmental Board was established in 1975.

He said Thailand had taken steps to phase out ozone depleting substances well in advance of the timetable stipulated in the 1987 Montreal Protocol, he said. The Government was also determined to fulfil its commitments as a party to the Framework Convention on Climate Change. He stressed the importance of increased ODA for countries beginning the journey to a sustainable pattern of development. There should be a strong recommendation to the General Assembly on that subject.

Also, he continued, the industrialized countries should do everything in their power to actively promote and facilitate the transfer of clean and other environmentally sound technologies to the developing countries. Such transfer must be accompanied by the transfer of the managerial skills essential for efficient management and proper maintenance of such technologies. Through clarity in the regulatory regime established to enforce environmental standards in his country, Thailand had been able to phase out lead from motor fuel. It had also begun to enforce strict emission standards for all types of motor vehicles.

G.O.P. OBASI, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said that his organization, through its scientific and technical programmes, would continue to be involved in the provision of information and assessments on issues contained in Agenda 21, including the protection of the atmosphere, water resources availability, combating of desertification and the reduction of natural hazards.

He said that the WMO, through its World Weather Watch and Global Atmosphere Watch, played a leading role in monitoring, on a global and regional basis, the physical characteristics of the atmosphere and its

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chemical composition. It was also positioned to contribute extensively to the implementation of the relevant parts of Agenda 21, especially chapter 9 on the protection of the atmosphere. There was, however, need for the further enhancement of research and systematic observation programmes concerning the atmosphere, including climate, state of the ozone layer and atmospheric pollution.

He announced that the WMO was participating in the preparation of the Comprehensive Assessment of the Freshwater Resources of the world, which the Commission requested during its second session in 1994. The WMO was also organizing a series of conferences in different regions on water resources policy, assessment and management. The conferences were intended to explore options and strategies to develop the capacities of national water resource agencies in assessing and managing water resources, so as to promote sustainable development.

He said that combating desertification was essential to ensuring the long-term productivity of inhabited drylands and promoting their sustainable development. Countries affected by desertification should develop and carry out national, subregional and regional action programmes.

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