PRESS CONFERENCE BY COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Reviewing the first week of the current session of the Commission on Sustainable Development for correspondents this afternoon, the Commission’s Chair said one of the overarching ideas had been that sustainable energy and transportation went beyond protecting the environment and included social considerations -– such as poverty, and access to and affordability of energy resources.

Speaking at a Headquarters press conference, Bedrich Moldan (Czech Republic) was joined by Commission Vice-Chairs David Stuart (Australia) and Alison Drayton (Guyana), as well as JoAnne DiSano, Director, Sustainable Development Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs.  The panel was introduced by Pagati Pascale, of the Department of Public Information.

Mr. Moldan said the Commission’s session, which began Monday and will run through Friday, 27 April, had been structured somewhat differently than in the past.  Along with a general debate and the four enriching and highly interactive multi-stakeholder dialogue segments, there had also been a high-level panel on financing of transport and energy for sustainable development.

Another unique feature was a series of “breakfast meetings” held informally yesterday and today, prior to the Commission’s plenary meetings, he continued.  At the Bureau’s urging, the ministers participating in those meetings had focused their deliberations on the preparatory process, structure and outcome of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, scheduled to be held in Johannesburg. 

Mr. Moldan added that the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Nitin Desai, and the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Klaus Toepfer, were among the participants representing the Secretariat and the Organization’s other relevant funds and agencies.

Mr. Moldan said that the main consensus that had emerged from those discussions had been the notion that the 2002 Summit would not be a repeat of the 1992 Rio Summit or renegotiation of Agenda 21, the programme of action.  The upcoming Summit would focus on new development issues that had emerged during the past decade -– globalization being perhaps the most important.

The ministers had also stressed the need to focus on making the idea of sustainable development operational, he added.  Indeed, they felt that, as sustainability issues had become increasingly lost in the arcane jargon that characterized the deliberations of international stakeholders, the wider global community had become alienated from the true meaning and substance of the sustainable development process.  The challenge then, was “to focus on the people on the street and do something for them”.

Answering allegations by some non-governmental organization representatives that large corporations had hijacked the sustainable development process,

Mr. Moldan noted that the Commission had been one of the branches of the United Nations that had pioneered the participation of non-governmental organizations and civil society.  So while major corporations were indeed integral players, their participation did not supersede that of other groups. 

Mr. Stuart added that, with the 2002 Summit on the horizon, the Commission was well aware of the importance of the participation of non-governmental organizations in the sustainable development process.  It would be crucial to make that meeting an all-inclusive exercise, and to avoid an “us versus them” type atmosphere.

Another correspondent asked if the work of the Commission during the session had been overshadowed by the current worldwide debate on climate change, particularly the United States’ apparent withdrawal from negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol.  Mr. Moldan responded that the Commission tried to address all issues of sustainable development.  Such a holistic approach meant that sometimes hotly debated subjects would arise.  While it was not his place to comment on the direction of the political negotiations surrounding the Kyoto process, he said it could only be considered positive that such an important issue had informed the work during the current session.  He further drew correspondents’ attention to the one-day informal consultations on the issue of climate change being held tomorrow. 

Responding to another question, Mr. Stuart said that climate change was an international problem that required an international solution, and that Australia would continue to work towards meeting the Kyoto agreements.

Mr. Moldan added that next week the vice-chairpersons would oversee the completion of the Commission’s activities in informal working groups focused on drafting and negotiating the decisions that would make up the final report of the session. 

Ms. Drayton said that, while she could not give the details of all the negotiations that would take place next week, it was clear that several energy issues would provide for a lively debate -– including nuclear energy, market structure and international cooperation.  As expected, there was broad disagreement on many nuclear issues.  Further, there appeared to be fundamental disagreement on whether markets offered the opportunity to deliver affordable energy, particularly in developing countries.  On international cooperation, she said the key would be for delegations to try not to anticipate the 2002 Summit in Johannesburg by placing too many parameters on the way forward.

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