BRIEFING BY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME

Press Briefing

BRIEFING BY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME

Klaus Topfer, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), this afternoon discussed the work of the Secretary-General's Task Force on environmental and human settlement issues, as well as efforts by the United Nations system regarding the forest fires in Indonesia, at a press briefing at United Nations Headquarters.

Mr. Topfer, who is also Director-General of the United Nations Office at Nairobi and Head of the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat), said the Task Force had been asked to deliver its recommendations by 15 June. It was currently holding its second of four meetings. However, it would be premature to describe the end-product of its continuing, intensive discussions.

Since the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), important conventions and treaties had been adopted on such issues as climate change, desertification, biodiversity and the export of hazardous waste, Mr. Topfer said. It was now necessary to integrate the work of the Task Force with that of the Commission on Sustainable Development and the UNEP Governing Council. It was hoped that the Task Force could be streamlined, to avoid overlapping and duplication of work.

Mr. Topfer said that members of the Task force included Maria Julia Alsogaray, Secretary for Natural Resources and Sustainable Development of Argentina; Nitin Desai, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs; James Gustav Speth, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); and Michael Zamit Cutajar, Executive Secretary for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The United Nations should do its utmost to increase rather than decrease its activities in Nairobi, Mr. Topfer said. The Organization's presence was essential in the third world. He expressed pleasure that the Secretary- General would be visiting Nairobi from 3 to 5 May, underlining that the headquarters there was a vital partner in the United Nations family.

The Task Force had focused on some specific and important issues, Mr. Topfer said. It had been asked by the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to look at the disastrous forest fires in that region, which were affecting Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. There were comparable problems in Latin America, especially in the Amazon and Orinocco River basins. The Secretary-General had asked him to coordinate an overall response to the situation, which could have serious environmental effects.

He said that 14 per cent of global biodiversity potential was concentrated in Kalimantan, in Indonesia. The carbon dioxide emissions from the forest fires in the region last year were equal to the overall emissions

of carbon dioxide from Europe for a year. The problem was not only local or national; it was a global problem requiring a global response. That was particularly true for Indonesia, where severe economic difficulties had assumed priority over the fires.

The global community should make every effort to substitute for efforts the Indonesian Government was unable to make, Mr. Topfer said. The UNEP met last week with technical experts, and it was decided that immediate short-term help was needed in the range of $10 million, including equipment and training measures. That short-term action would be taken by UNEP in coordination with other parts of the United Nations system and other organizations.

The recent rain in Indonesia had somewhat decreased but by no means resolved the problem, Mr. Topfer said. This was not a time to sit and wait for a solution to arrive; the international community had to be active. The fires posed environmental problems, but they were primarily a health hazard for the people living in the region. They also created economic problems. It was hoped that coordination within the United Nations system could also be applied to other environmental emergencies and disasters, including El Nino.

Asked why he had accepted the position of UNEP Executive Director, Mr. Topfer said the United Nations needed a strong environmental voice. Having been Environment Minister in Germany for more than seven-and-a-half years, he hoped that he could speed up the work and improve the United Nations profile in the environmental world. Although environmental problems were not high on the list of priorities of Member States, they were very important.

To a question on whether he would be following the new environmental policy announced by the Secretary-General, Mr. Topfer said that UNEP's efforts were in line with the overall expectations of the Secretary-General. There were many natural resources that could cause regional conflicts. Security policies in the future would be intensively linked to such questions as, for example, the availability of water. There should be an early-warning system to point out possible hot-spots for such conflicts. Environmental questions could be directly linked to security and also to economic issues.

The Commission on Sustainable Development had talked a lot about cleaner production techniques, but what about the products themselves? a correspondent asked. Shouldn't there be more restrictions on chemical products such as pesticides? Mr. Topfer said there were some stringent restrictions on the transportation of such products, including a recent convention on the export of pesticides -- known as the prior informed consent agreement. Under that convention, the consent of an importing country must be given before such products could be exported. It was hoped that convention would soon come into force.

Topfer Briefing - 3 - 27 April 1998

What were the most important causes of the forest fires in Asia? a correspondent asked. First, there were the repercussions of El Nino, which had caused droughts in some regions and floods in others, Mr. Topfer said. However, the man-made causes could not be overlooked, including slash-and-burn methods of land clearance.

The priority now was to contain the problem, which was so far was mainly concentrated in east Kalimantan and some parts of the Malaysian province of Sabah, as well as on the island of Borneo, he said. So far, there were no problems in Sumatra, which had been severely affected by fires last year. Donor institutions could only be asked for money if the man-made causes of the fires were also considered.

A correspondent asked how much the climate had changed, and if predictions could be made covering the next 10 years. Mr. Topfer said there was clear information on average temperatures compared with prior centuries. Over the past 10 years, temperatures had certainly been higher, but he did not feel there was as yet a clear picture on what those figures meant. Although there were very reliable figures on climate, greater monitoring of the state of the environment was very important, so that such information might be brought to the table to stimulate political answers.

Could the United Nations take steps to streamline the various treaty bodies, or would the members of those bodies have to give their consent? a correspondent asked. That was one of the main questions that needed to be answered, Mr. Topfer said. With all the different decentralized convention bodies, located all over the world, there was a very scattered view. They all had their own governing bodies, secretariats and budgets. It was of the highest importance to achieve better coordination and to prove that money and manpower were not being wasted. The topic of better integration had been at the centre of the Task Force's discussions.

The 1989 health and environmental charter affirmed the right of individuals to a healthy environment, a correspondent said. Asked to comment, Mr. Topfer said that one of the main reasons to fight environmental pollution was human health. That was one of the main pillars of his work, and cooperation between the UNEP and the World Health Organization (WHO) was very important.

A correspondent drew attention to the view that Asian countries could not adequately address environmental problems because of the severe financial difficulties facing them. Asked for comment, Mr. Topfer said development must be linked with technologies that were not harmful to the environment. Citing in particular the so-called "win-win" technologies, he said much progress could be made even while there were economic problems. It was incorrect to say that environmental problems placed a burden on economic progress.

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