HEADQUARTERS PRESS BRIEFING BY NITIN DESAI ON WORLD SUMMIT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

HEADQUARTERS PRESS BRIEFING BY NITIN DESAI ON WORLD

SUMMIT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Preparations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development advanced this week from the regional to the global level, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Nitin Desai told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.

Introduced by Thérèse Gastaut of the Department of Public Information, Mr. Desai said that Headquarters events of the week would build on the results of earlier regional activities, which included round tables and various intergovernmental and inter-sectoral meetings.  Yesterday, the Second Committee of the General Assembly started its debate on “Environment and Development”, of which the focus was the Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development, scheduled for next year.  Yesterday also saw the first meeting of a high-level advisory panel appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan. 

On that same day, he said, the new Carriage House Foundation hosted the first of a series called “Conversations on Sustainability”.  The event brought together various non-governmental representatives from the East and West coasts, moderated by Gabe Pressman, to discuss the topic.  In addition, a global communications initiative was now up and running, including a Web site at www.johannesburgsummit.org. 

The objective of the Johannesburg Summit, Mr. Desai said in response to a correspondent’s query, was to “try to put some flesh and bones around the concept of sustainable development, in a few key areas”.  That meant making connections between the environment agenda and agendas concerning poverty, health and other development topics.

Those connections were clear when one realized that 70 per cent of the poor depended on land, water and forest for their living; and that health depended greatly on water, sanitation and air quality.

Specific topics, he said, included the sustainability of consumption, which involved appropriateness of choices along the lines of efficiency, recycling and energy.  Sustainability would be considered both in meeting the demands of developing countries -– where the level of consumption was low -- and in managing the high consumption levels of industrial countries.  It was also important to address such topics as oceans, forests and biodiversity in the context of ecosystems.

In each key area, he said, policy, programmes and institutions would be developed.  Methods of policy implementation –- including finance and technology –- were also essential.  “What we are looking for”, he said, “is political commitment, what we are looking for is practical steps, what we are looking for is partnerships –- between governments and other actors -- like business, local authorities, trade unions, cooperatives and others”.

Responding to a correspondent’s question on the impact of the recent terrorist acts on preparations for the Summit, he said that because of those

tragic events it was harder for regional activities to attract media attention. In the long term, however, he felt that current attention to terrorism would strengthen the search for multi-lateralism and for cooperation between countries on programmes.

When a correspondent asked how the Summit could resolve inter-State disputes over water, Mr. Desai said that his questioner had touched on what was possibly the most difficult topic in the field.  Inter-State rivers had long been a source of dispute.  The Summit could make progress in water management and meeting water demand within existing frameworks.  Those frameworks included agreements in force on major river basins.  “There is a lot that could be done”, he said, “but I would certainly not project that we could resolve disputes that are a few thousand years old in Johannesburg.”

At the close of the briefing, Mr. Desai introduced the representatives of the regional round tables, who were at Headquarters to advise on the priorities of their respective regions.  They were eminent personalities in their own right, he said.  Present were:  Professor Adebayo Adedeji, Executive Director of the African Centre for Development and Strategic Studies (Round table for Africa); Dr. Asylebek Aidaraliev, Adviser to the President of the Kyrgyz Republic (Round table for Central and South Asia); Professor M. Nordin Hasan, of the Institute for Environment and Development of the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (Round table for East Asia and the Pacific); Sir Alister McIntyre, Chief Technical Officer with the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (Round table for Latin America and the Caribbean); and Larry Papay, Vice-President of the Science Applications International Corporation, San Diego, California (Round table for Europe and North America).

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