PRESS CONFERENCE ON ROLE OF INDUSTRY IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE ON ROLE OF INDUSTRY IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Progress made by the inter-sessional working group of the Commission on Sustainable Development on the role of industry in sustainable development was discussed Friday afternoon by the representatives of three non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who participated in those meetings, at a press conference at United Nations Headquarters. Addressing correspondents were Maria Elena Hurtado of Consumers International; S. Ananthakrishnan of the Norwegian Forum for Environment and Development; and Dieter van der Gaag of the Northern Alliance for Sustainability.

Ms. Hurtado said she wished to speak about extension of the United Nations guidelines for consumer protection into the area of sustainable consumption. Using consumer power to get companies to green their products and practices was a key aspect of sustainable consumption. While a great deal had been done to improve the production processes and the way that products were designed and made, attention to the use of the demand side to influence supply was very new. The Commission in 1995 approved a work plan on changing production and consumption patterns in a more sustainable direction. An aspect of that involved extension of the United Nations guidelines into the area of sustainable consumption.

The existing United Nations guidelines had been very influential in framing much legislation around the world, she said. They dealt with such issues as providing information to consumers, protecting economic interests of consumers and making sure that products were safe. However, since they were approved in 1985, they did not take any of the environmental aspects of the issue into account. That was why the Commission was now trying to revise them.

She said the current inter-sessional meeting was presented with draft guidelines on sustainable consumption. They included such things as ensuring that consumers were not misled by green advertising, the use of incentives in support of sustainable practices and the need to incorporate the environmental cost into the final price of products. However, the non-governmental organization community was extremely disappointed when governments were not prepared to negotiate the text of those guidelines. What the Commission finally decided was to look at how to proceed at its sixth meeting in April. The NGOs considered that the guidelines should be completed as swiftly as possible. They should see the light of day in 1999, when a topic of the Commission's session will be "changing sustainable consumption and production patterns".

She said the NGOs were pleased with the discussion on industry and environment relating to the multilateral agreement on investment. The United States and the European Union had stated that the agreement must be framed in the context of sustainable development.

Mr. Ananthakrishnan said the NGO community was happy that some of its concerns had been taken into consideration in the plenary discussions and by different national delegations. At present, globalization was marching ahead at a pace which made it difficult to follow what its effect was in the realm of environment and development. The NGO community considered the issues of sustainable development to be of paramount importance when questions of globalization were being addressed.

The globalization of culture, communication, trade and investment should always take into consideration issues relating to environment, development and the socio-economic needs of ordinary people. The multilateral investment treaty negotiated under the aegis of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) did not take into consideration those concerns. The Commission had been able to put that on the agenda. That should be the case when it came to negotiations under the World Trade Organization (WTO) on a multilateral agreement on investments. The concern was that the successes achieved at the inter-sessional meetings should be maintained at the Commission's session in April, so that the issues of globalization were made subject to the needs of environment, development, labour and socio-economic issues.

Mr. van der Gaag said he was extremely pleased that the Commission was addressing the issue of multilateral agreement on investments. It was important that sustainable development be integrated in all treaties. The Commission was the place where that should be mentioned. The NGOs present at the current inter-sessional meeting had entered a proposal that the Commission initiate a review process of voluntary initiatives. The NGOs were pleased that their proposal had been taken up by the Co-Chairs in their draft text.

In an era of globalization in which the State was increasingly seen as retreating and more and more was being left to the voluntary initiatives of industry, it was extremely important that someone sit down and see how that would work best, he said. It seemed that not many people knew yet how such voluntary initiatives and voluntary agreements from business and industry -- that is, corporate codes of conduct on how to act responsibly -- would work best. Should there be an incentive programme from government? Should there be some regulations? What should the legal basis look like to have voluntary initiatives work well? The NGOs were very pleased to see that the Co-Chairs had taken that proposal and it was hoped that governments would do so as well when the Commission met in April.

Were there big differences between governments regarding the consumer protection guidelines, or had they simply been put off to another day? a correspondent asked. Ms. Hurtado said the proposed guidelines were very complex, including issues such as making poverty a focus for sustainable consumption, extending the life of products and addressing actions by

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governments to green their procurement. They included a large variety of areas.

She went on to say that an interregional expert meeting in Sao Paolo had prepared the text for those guidelines in January, which was very late in the process, so the governments only had the text a week in advance. It was only available in all the languages by the first day of the second week when the subject was going to be negotiated. Governments, especially from the developing world, felt that they had not had enough time to study them. On the other hand, there were differences. The developing countries had always felt that the issue for them was underconsumption, not consumption, so they linked it very much to poverty. Nevertheless, a large number of them -- including such countries as Colombia, Ecuador and Indonesia -- spoke during the Commission's plenary. They expressed support for the development of the guidelines, but it was very new territory and they wanted more time to consider them carefully.

To another question, Ms. Hurtado said the issue of "eco-labelling" was very important. One of the central aspects of the guidelines involved the provision of information to consumers that was reliable and not misleading. The whole subject of sustainable consumption was based on using demand to get producers to produce greener products. Eco-labelling was a central issue there. For the developing world -- and this was reflected in the draft guidelines -- the concern was that eco-labelling could be used as a barrier to trade. However, the draft guidelines stated specifically that while eco- labelling was very important in the path to sustainable consumption, it should not be used as a barrier to trade.

Mr. Ananthakrishnan added that an issue which might be a matter of contention during the Commission session involved genetically modified food and plants. The new consumer guidelines rightly stated that governments should have the right to control and regulate such processes. In that respect, there might be a difference of opinion between, maybe, the United States, on the one hand, and the European Union, on the other.

A correspondent asked about situation relating to dangerous pharmaceuticals or pesticides where, if the people could not read the warnings, there could be all kinds of problems. Ms. Hurtado said the draft guidelines did have a paragraph dealing with the banning of the use of chemicals which were banned or severely restricted. However, they did not refer to the question of information to users. What was included was that in the discussion on sustainable consumption, there was some consumption which should not happen at all, and that all dangerous, banned or severely restricted products should be withdrawn from the marketplace, from the production chain.

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The Chairman's draft made only passing reference to the Kyoto Protocol adopted last December by the Third Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a correspondent said. Did the NGOs consider climate change as an issue that should be left for other forums? Should the Commission be addressing the question of energy use and emissions, especially in industry? Mr. Ananthakrishnan said the Commission was the correct body to address all Conventions which had followed the Rio Conference, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention to Combat Desertification and the Climate Change Convention.

As was stated with respect to the multilateral investment treaty, governments must be subjected to legally binding commitments to abide by those Conventions, he went on to say. The Commission would be the right body to recommend that conditionalities relating to such treaties, even though there might be different secretariats and negotiations going on in different forums. The Commission, as an overarching forum, should more forcefully take up those issues when discussing industry, and other sectors as well, including fresh water.

Ms. Hurtado added that there was a paragraph in the text on environment and industry concerning implementation of the Kyoto agreements. It was the role of the Commission to reinforce those issues and provide the political leadership on all environmental questions everywhere, including those relating to the Climate Change Convention. Mr. Ananthakrishnan added that the issue of emission reductions had been discussed in great detail by the Commission last year.

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