PRESS CONFERENCE ON NEGOTIATIONS OF SPECIAL SESSION OUTCOME
Press Briefing
PRESS CONFERENCE ON NEGOTIATIONS OF SPECIAL SESSION OUTCOME
19970623
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Two Vice-Chairmen of the Commission on Sustainable Development, Bagher Asadi (Iran) and John Ash (Antigua and Barbuda) and a Co-Chairman of the Intersessional Working Group of the Commission, Derek Osborn (United Kingdom), briefed correspondents on Friday afternoon, 20 June, on the status of negotiations on sectoral areas being held in advance of the special session of the General Assembly to review the implementation of Agenda 21.
Mr. Osborn said that since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), held at Rio de Janeiro in 1992, there had been good progress in some areas, at the local level and in some of the major sectors in industry and farming. However, the build-up of greenhouse gases was getting worse, oceans were still being polluted and over-fished, forest loss and desertification continued and there were important cross-sectoral problems of poverty and difficult economic conditions in many parts of the world.
Agreement had been reached on many priorities in negotiations during the past week, he said. At the special session, Heads of State and Government would be presented with wide agreement on a large number of issues and an assessment on what needed to be done. However, there had been no agreement on several key issues, so that the leaders would need to help resolve outstanding problems and give the political impetus and drive needed to carry the whole process forward with renewed vigour in the years ahead.
He said the three sectoral issues to be discussed next week included the atmosphere and the nature of the commitment and the targets and measures countries would undertake; better sustainable management of forests; and transportation, particularly proposals by European delegations for an aviation fuel tax. The idea of such a tax, which would have to be negotiated internationally, was to make sure the aviation sector bore its proper environmental and economic costs and to use some of the proceeds to support environmental action. There was opposition as well as support for such a tax.
Mr. Asadi said the main problem concerning the conservation and sustainable management of forests was how to continue the intergovernmental dialogue and action. The intergovernmental panel on forests had come up with good ideas and proposals which were waiting implementation. The question was whether or not to have an international convention on forests and whether to have it now or at some future time. Yesterday, the first informal consultations opened the divide between countries over the issue. Consensus would have to wait for some input from the heads of delegations next week.
Sustainable Development Briefing - 2 - 23 June 1997
Mr. Ashe spoke on the status of negotiations on cross-sectoral issues -- population, health, poverty, trade and finance. With trade and finance, there was a vast gulf between what developing countries would like to see and what developed countries could offer, he said. Negotiations aimed to bridge that gap and delegates hoped to remove most of the outstanding brackets by tomorrow's session, leaving the remaining ticklish issues to the Heads of State.
In reply to several questions on the proposed aviation fuel tax, Mr. Osborn said even to get international discussions on such a tax would be a big step. Such questions as how large it would be, how much money it would generate and where the money should flow were wide open. It was a solid European proposal which had received support from all European countries. There was strong non-governmental organization support and quite strong United States opposition for the proposal. Most other countries had not declared their position. It was a highly political issue which should be discussed by government leaders next week.
Even if the proposal became the subject for a serious international debate, it would be a long time before it reached conclusion, he said. The idea of the tax was to bring home to the aviation sector the full environmental cost and kind of pollution aircraft emissions caused to a sensitive part of the atmosphere. Compared to other transport sectors and other energy consumers, the aviation industry was under-taxed, because if one country introduced a fuel tax, planes would simply refuel elsewhere. There were different opinions on where the proceeds of such a tax should go. Some believed it would be more readily accepted if national governments kept the proceeds, others believed international support would be easier if some of the proceeds went to sustainable development.
In reply to a question about the kind of differences on a forest convention, Mr. Asadi said there had been no discussion on the matter by the Commission on Sustainable Development. Current consultations did not deal with substantive issues but rather aimed to achieve some consensus, reflecting different positions in the final document to go before the special session. Such issues as trade, services, export of forest commodities, management of national resources, sustainable development, intellectual property hinging on traditional forest-related knowledge were all part of the picture.
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