UNITED NATIONS TO HOLD 2002 WORLD SUMMIT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

IN JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA

Seeks to Regain Momentum from Rio Summit at 10-Year Mark

The United Nations has decided to hold a major summit in 2002 to assess and continue the ground-breaking work of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. The World Summit on Sustainable Development will take place in Johannesburg, South Africa, 10 years after the Rio event.

“Rio +10 comes at a crucial point, when we need to generate new momentum towards socially and environmentally sustainable development, to ensure a viable future for our planet”, said Nitin Desai, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs. Mr. Desai, who served as Deputy Secretary-General of the Rio Earth Summit, was one of the architects of Agenda 21, the comprehensive action plan that was agreed at Rio and that provides the framework for United Nations work on sustainable development.

The decision on Rio +10, which was approved this week by the General Assembly, calls for reinvigorating at the highest political level, the global commitment to a North-South partnership for sustainable development. More than 100 world leaders and over 17,000 activists attended the 1992 Earth Summit, building wide political and popular support for environmental protection and sustainable development.

Summit Objectives

The 2002 Summit will assess the current state of progress and examine the obstacles preventing implementation of the Rio agreement. It will then seek to adopt time-bound measures, including institutional and financial requirements, to overcome those obstacles, and address new issues that have emerged since the 1992 Summit.

Preliminary assessments made in 1997 for the Rio +5 special session of the General Assembly concluded that "business-as-usual" was not likely to result in sustainable development. Reports pointed to some progress, such as a slowdown in world population growth, a rise in food production and life expectancy, improvements in environmental quality in some regions and steps by many governments to conserve natural resources. But major negative trends included a

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growing scarcity of fresh-water; loss of productive agricultural land, forests and biodiversity; and a downward spiral of poverty for many people.

Timeline

Global preparations for the Summit will take place under the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, which meets annually to monitor and follow up on the Earth Summit agreements. Preparatory meetings will begin in April/May 2001 and continue in January 2002, followed by March/April 2002, all in New York. A final preparatory meeting will take place at the ministerial level in mid-May 2002 in Indonesia. These “prepcoms” -- and the Summit itself -- will include special dialogue sessions to allow government officials to share views with business leaders, environment activists and other civil society groups. The actual dates for the Summit itself have not yet been determined, but it is expected to take place between June and September 2002.

Building National and Regional Support

In order to generate support for the Rio +10 process and encourage input from a wide range of groups and interests –- such as local government, business, environment activists, women, youth, farmers and scientists –- governments are asked to set up national preparatory committees to jump-start work. Those committees will hold national consultations to identify specific and achievable sustainable development targets and actions. They will also seek input and select the best local examples of sustainable practices, as well as solicit visions for sustainability in the twenty-first century.

A series of regional conferences and round tables will be held in 2001 to pool national inputs and develop regional platforms, as well as to identify specific achievable regional targets.

For more information, contact: United Nations Department of Public Information: Pragati Pascale, tel.: (212) 963-6870, e-mail: pascale@un.org; or Shala Mokgethi, tel.: (212) 963-8104, e-mail: mokgethi@un.org; or visit the Web site at: www.un.org/rio+10

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Environmental issues and sustainable development