PRESS BRIEFING ON ENVIRONMENT BY COMMONWEALTH REPRESENTATIVES
Press Briefing
PRESS BRIEFING ON ENVIRONMENT BY COMMONWEALTH REPRESENTATIVES
19970626
Senator Robert Hill, Australia's Minister for Environment, told correspondents at a press conference yesterday afternoon that environment ministers of Commonwealth countries had met under his chairmanship in New York on Tuesday, 24 June to review progress in implementing the commitments of the Rio Conference on Environment and Development.
He was joined at the press conference by Guyana's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Samuel Insanally, and by the Deputy Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Secretariat, Sir Humphrey Maud.
Senator Hill said the environment ministers of the organization met annually to review achievements made in the field to guide the Commonwealth secretariat on environmental matters and to make proposal to the Heads of State and Government summit meetings, the next of which was to be held in Edinburgh, Scotland. Similarly, the Ministers had tried to see whether they could reach a consensus on issues before the Assembly's current special session.
According to the text of his summary statement on the meeting, the ministers had addressed three major areas: implementation of conventions/agreements; integration of economic and environmental policies; and financing environmentally sustainable development. They had underscored the need to speed up transition to environmentally sustainable development worldwide within the framework of the Agenda 21 Rio agreements. That could be achieved by implementing existing agreements, integrating economic and environmental policies and by providing more resources for implementing Agenda 21 in poorer countries.
The Ministers had urged greater support for the efforts of developing countries to address poverty issues which had direct effect on environmental sustainability, the statement adds. They had supported the objective of cutting by half, by the year 2015, the proportion of people living in absolute poverty.
Senator Hill told correspondents the meeting with his colleagues recognized the urgency of further action to promote the management, conservation and sustainable development of forests. Noting that many States had made voluntary commitments on conservation and sustainable forest management, they urged the international community to help developing countries implement such commitments. While they had expressed differing views on the value of a convention on forests, the ministers had stressed the importance of implementing the recommendations of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Forests and the need to continue a dialogue that would identify possible elements for arrangements or a legally binding instrument on forests. The fact that little progress had been made in implementing the Barbados Programme of Action on the sustainable development
of small island developing countries was addressed by the ministers, who then asked the international community to pay greater attention to those countries' needs. Particularly, he said, the ministers had welcomed Commonwealth support for the Iwokrama International Rain Forest Programme of Guyana, which would contribute towards the implementation of the Rio agreements on forests, biodiversity and climate change. The project would not only protect the forest, but would also generate income for Guyana and help its educational programmes. It deserved further international support.
Concluding, Senator Hill said the ministers had agreed to meet again to iron out some of their areas of disagreement.
Guyana's Permanent Representative, Mr. Insanally, said the Iwokrama Programme would conduct research into biodiversity, forestry and other aspects of the environment. The Programme had reached a stage where it could now receive additional money from the international community. As Guyana's President had told the special Assembly session, the donor community could afford to invest about four cents per acre annually to preserve a Programme which should not be allowed to fail due to its potential benefits.
A correspondent asked Senator Hill how threats to the environment could be overcome without the international community's help. He said Guyana's Iwokrama Programme was a concrete example of how international cooperation could promote, for example, forest conservation projects in developing countries. More of such projects should be launched. Asked for examples of the areas of agreement and disagreement at the ministers' meeting, he said they had agreed that priority should be accorded to the oceans, the forests, sustainable cities and other aspects of the global environment. Disagreements arose over details such as whether or not to aim for conventions on forests or on energy, and whether the developing countries needed treaties to nudge them towards reforming their energy sectors. Divergence of views also arose on whether or not environmental targets should be established. In response to a question on whether there were efforts to ensure the implementation of existing commitments, Senator Hill said there had been strong feeling at the meeting that current conventions and commitments should be implemented before new ones were enacted. Regarding proposals on how to reduce greenhouse gases, for instance, the United Kingdom's Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, had suggested that the emissions of transport systems should be addressed to slow down climate change. Ambassador Insanally added that the small island countries hoped for a renewal of the commitments that had been made in relation to the environment. The small countries, for their part, would deposit their treaty ratifications with the United Nations. Turning to the ongoing United Nations reforms, he called for a body that would cater for the outcome of all related global conferences. * *** *