PRESS CONFERENCE BY CO-CHAIRMEN OF INTER-SESSIONAL WORKING GROUP OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION
Press Briefing
PRESS CONFERENCE BY CO-CHAIRMEN OF INTER-SESSIONAL WORKING GROUP OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION
19970303
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
At a Headquarters press conference this morning, the Co-Chairmen of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Inter-sessional Working Group of the Commission on Sustainable Development, the Permanent Representative of Brazil, Celso Luiz Nunes Amorim, and the Director-General of the Environment Ministry of the United Kingdom and current Chairman of the European Environment Agency, Derek Osborn, briefed correspondents on the work of the Inter-sessional Working Group which is currently meeting at Headquarters (24 February to 7 March).
Mr. Osborn said the list of achievements since the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) was "still stronger on procedures and processes than it is on action and implementation -- on things that are really changing lives". As Co-Chairman, he had coined a phrase which reflected the achievements: "Slightly less unsustainable development genuflecting to the environment" -- with the acronym "SLUGE".
What he had put as a challenge to the Ad Hoc Open-ended Inter-sessional Working Group to be achieved for the next five years was "development reconciling environmental and material success" -- with the acronym -- "dreams". The international community had to move from "sluge" to "dreams", he said.
For the upcoming special session of the General Assembly on review and appraisal of implementation of Agenda 21, the programme of action adopted by UNCED, Mr. Osborn said the representatives in the Inter-sessional Working Group had been given the challenge to nurture the ideas that they were developing last week into real ideas -- "to create a buzz" that the Ministers and, perhaps, Heads of Government attending the special session in June would feel were worthwhile. "We can give a lead to the world and not just stir the sluge of the old debates which have been sterile sometimes and just involved repeating old formulas."
The Inter-sessional Working Group is mandated to prepare for the upcoming fifth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development, to be held at Headquarters from 7 to 25 April. The 53-member Commission, which meets annually, was established in 1992 by Assembly resolution 47/191 to monitor progress in the implementation of Agenda 21. The work of the Inter- sessional Working Group will also lay the foundation for the General Assembly's special session -- "Earth Summit + 5" -- scheduled for 23 to 27 June at Headquarters.
Giving the background to the Assembly's special session, the other Co-Chairman, Mr. Amorim, said when Agenda 21 was adopted in Rio, the Conference had foreseen the need for an assessment and a definition of future action after a five-year period. That was the purpose of the special session to be held in June. The Inter-sessional Working Group had to prepare the ground for the decisions that would be taken at the special session which would reflect Member States' political will.
In its 51-year history, the Assembly has held 18 special sessions on issues such as the new international economic order (1974), Namibia (1978 and 1986), disarmament (1978 and 1988), apartheid (1989), and international economic cooperation (1990). Mr. Amorim added that the real importance of the special session on Agenda 21 was to give new impetus to the global partnership that was established at Rio five years ago. There, for the first time, the international community had seen, clearly, issues that had been considered part of Member States' internal agenda and issues related to international cooperation brought together with the matters related to environment and development. The concept of sustainable development, which was already being used in a number of forums, became an internationally accepted concept as a result of UNCED. The main task ahead, therefore, was to find new ideas to bridge the gaps so that the partnership that had been established in Rio stayed alive. There was a long list of achievements since UNCED, which included the entry into force of a number of conventions and the increased participation of civil society, both within countries and in international forums in relation to sustainable development issues, he said. The series of United Nations conferences since Rio had taken up some of the issues of Rio, and had displayed the same spirit of partnership and the idea of complementarity between national and international cooperation. In addition, a large number of countries had given greater, more focused, attention to sustainable development issues; an example of which was the setting up of local Agenda 21 chapters in many Member States at the national and at the local levels.
He informed correspondents that as a result of the discussions of the Inter-sessional Working Group, the Co-Chairmen, with Secretariat staff, had prepared a first draft of a document which was "just a guide" for the Working Group's discussions for the remainder of the week, which was being referred to as "co-chairmen's text". Based on the ideas that would emerge from it, the draft text would become the basis of negotiations that would take place during the forthcoming meeting of the Commission.
Mr. Osborn stressed that there had been a good spirit of cooperation in the Inter-sessional Working Group. "It has not been a sterile North-South debate. It had been an extremely creative meeting in which new thinking and new ideas for tackling the problems of sustainable development have emerged." The problems that had been addressed at the Rio Summit, such as natural resource depletion, degradation of the environment, pollution, poverty, and
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inequitable distribution of resources within and between countries, were so enormous that were not going to vanish overnight. Many of the good approaches established at Rio for handling such problems had included partnerships among countries and local, national and international entities, international legal instruments, as well as economic and financial mechanisms.
Asked about the debate on finance during the Inter-sessional Working Group's meetings last week, Mr. Amorim said finance was an area in which the Working Group had been trying to avoid "the sterile ideological debate" on private capital versus official development assistance (ODA). Regrettably, ODA had been decreasing. On the other hand, there was widespread recognition that the real engine for growth, internationally and nationally, was private capital. But in order for that engine to work, it was necessary to create the conditions, such as the infrastructure, capacity-building, and a scientific base that could not be attained by foreign capital alone. The ODA was still needed to create such conditions. Although the amount of foreign direct investment going to developing countries had grown, he said, two developments had taken place: first, foreign capital had tended to concentrate in some countries to the detriment of others; and second, it tended to focus on some sectors and not to be invested in "environmentally sustainable projects" and projects with greater social impacts. Therefore, it was necessary to emphasize the importance of ODA as a means for creating the preconditions for integrating some countries or some sectors into the more dynamic flows of international capital. All of those ideas were reflected in the co-chairmen's text.
He added that in order for ODA and private capital to complement each other, maximum use should be made of the market forces which sometimes need a little push in relation to some countries or some sectors. In response to a question about how the transfer of private capital to environmentally sound projects could be achieved and monitored, Mr. Amorim said it did not happen on its own. "Private capital has one agenda, which is profit, and which is natural. It is believed that in having that agenda, it also brings progress, but it is true that sometimes some kind of incentive or stimulus is necessary for foreign capital to go to the worthiest projects." Some relevant ideas, such as Switzerland's suggestion of "green credit lines" that would help move some technology or capital to areas which, normally, they would not go, had emerged in the Inter-sessional Working Group.
Another idea that had emerged was that of increasing partnership between small and medium enterprises of the developed countries and the developing countries, with ODA as a prop, he said. The issue was how to use ODA as a leverage to direct foreign capital to more sustainable development-oriented projects and to countries that were outside the process of globalization.
The other Co-Chairman, Mr. Osborn, added it was important to recognize that there were comparatively few in the private sector who believed in "unsustainable development" -- in destroying the environment. They did so when
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they were focusing on short-term profit. Most owners of private capital would prefer to make money and take safeguards for the environment at the same time.
"We need to work with that constructive spirit that really exists in the hearts of most business people", he said. That could be done partly by encouraging their own initiative to improve their standards; partly by governments setting up the right regulatory frameworks in their countries to prevent unacceptable actions; and partly by having the right financial framework that would give business people incentives to act in ways that might not be economic on the short term.
A correspondent asked what positive developments had occurred in the last five years regarding production and consumption patterns. Mr. Osborn said much discussion had taken place on the issue. The meaning of the concept was still elusive, although is had moved on from the old-fashioned idea that the international community must consume less or have negative growth. It was now exploring ways in which growth could be pursued alongside development, fulfilling aspirations and overcoming poverty. That was being pursued in a way that was more efficient in the use of resources, energy, and in the production of waste and pollution.
He went on to say that an interesting idea that was emerging in the Working Group's discussions was the concept of "eco-efficiency" -- how more could be done with less. The idea of "factor 10" -- of trying to make the world, over the next 50 years, 10 times more efficient in its production of consumer goods in relation to the consumption of natural resources -- was also circulating. It was an idea that was more ambitious than some thought was credible or could be achieved.
Mr. Amorim added that not much had happened in terms of targets being agreed on internationally on production and consumption patterns, but there had been in-depth studies on those complex matters. It was not a simple matter, not only because of the obvious resistance of industry in both developed countries and developing countries, but also because of the linkages that were made. One of the concerns that had emerged in the Working Group's discussions was what would be the impact of action to address production and consumption patterns on developing countries' trade -- in attempts to produce more with less resources. The impact might be more poverty in developing countries -- which was also unsustainable in a different sense. Those perceived linkages were very important.
Another important issue highlighted by the Working Group had been the large disparities in the distribution of wealth, both within and between developed and developing countries, he said. It was noted that those disparities were not conducive to sustainable patterns of consumption and production. That issue of "how the social aspect of sustainability is linked to the environmental aspect of sustainability" was an important one, which had been raised by Norway, and which should be reflected on in more depth.
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