Commission on Sustainable Development

Acting as the Preparatory Committee for

 World Summit on Sustainable Development

6^th Meeting (PM)*

PREPARATORY COMMITTEE CONCLUDES SESSION; RECOMMENDS SUMMIT ON SUSTAINABLE

DEVELOPMENT BE HELD IN JOHANNESBURG 2-11 SEPTEMBER 2002

The Commission on Sustainable Development, acting as the Preparatory Committee for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, concluded its three-day organizational session this afternoon with the adoption of five draft decisions, three of them as orally amended.

The Commission recommended that the Summit -- the 10-year review of the

1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) take place in Johannesburg, South Africa from 2 to

11 September 2002, with participation at the level of Heads of State or Government during the period from 9 to 11 September.  The same text contained recommendations on a tentative plan for organization of the Summit's work. 

By the text on specific modalities of future sessions of the Preparatory Committee, the Commission decided that the second preparatory session would take place from 28 January to 8 February 2002 and the third from 25 March to 5 April 2002, both at Headquarters. 

The fourth and final preparatory session, to be held at the ministerial level in Indonesia from 27 May to 7 June 2002, would include a two-day multi-stakeholder dialogue segment as well as a three-day high-level segment at the ministerial level. 

Regarding the rules of procedure for the Summit, the Commission, by another text, recommended that the General Assembly at its fifty-sixth session adopt the provisional rules of procedure of the Summit as contained in the annex to document E/CN.17/2001/PC/24, with the modifications proposed by the Commission.

The Commission also recommended that the number of Vice-Presidents of the Summit be 25 -- five from each of the following groups: African States; Asian States; Eastern European States; Latin American and Caribbean States; and Western European and Other States. 

By the terms of a text on progress in preparatory activities at the local, national, regional and international levels as well as by major groups, the Commission called on countries that had not yet started their national preparations for the Summit to do so as soon as possible. 

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*     The 4^th and 5^th meetings were held in informal consultations.

Also, the Commission decided that the preparatory process would take into account the results of the Millennium Assembly, the International Conference on Financing for Development, the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, the meetings of the Conferences of the Parties of the UNCED-related and other relevant global conventions, and the replenishment of the Global Environment Facility.

It further decided that the preparations for the Summit at all levels should take into account progress in the implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States. 

By the last text, the Commission decided on arrangements for accreditation and participation in the preparatory process and in the Summit of relevant non-governmental organizations and other major groups.  

Also this afternoon, the Commission adopted the report of its organizational session (E/CN.17/2001/PC/L.2), which was introduced by its rapporteur, Diane Quarless (Jamaica), who was elected this afternoon.    

In closing remarks, Nitin Desai, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, praised the cooperation and flexibility the Committee had shown during negotiations this week.  He said that the decisions taken today would help to develop a basic structure for the Johannesburg Summit next year.  He reminded delegations that there was nearly a nine month gap between today and the next preparatory meeting.  He was hopeful that as delegations returned to their respective capitals, they would not forget about the sustainable development process.

He asked everyone to keep in mind how much work remained to be done before Johannesburg.  He also asked members to keep close watch on all relevant meetings that were taking place throughout the United Nations system.  As for delegates remaining in New York, he said that they were mistaken if they thought they were about to get a nine-month holiday from sustainable development; he would make sure that the Secretariat would keep them all very busy.

In his closing statement, Commission Chairman Emil Salim (Indonesia) said that he had been a bit nervous when he was asked to head the Preparatory Committee.  That was mainly because he had witnessed the “clash” of ideals between the developed and developing countries over environmental issues in both Stockholm and Rio.  He had been afraid that the same disagreements would characterize the discussions during the run-up to Johannesburg; that rich nations would come up with more excuses to ignore the development needs of poor countries and to ignore the state of the environment.  He was therefore quite surprised and pleased to discover, as he sat in on many rounds of negotiations during this session, that his fears were unfounded.  There had been much progress between north and south on environmental issues and the protection of natural resources. 

He went on to say that if the slogan for Stockholm had been “Only One Earth”, and the Rio Conference had bee called “The Earth Summit”, perhaps the Johannesburg Summit could be called “Down to Earth.”  Such a slogan would let the people of the world know that international actors were moving away from the high theoretical concepts of sustainable development and down to concrete operational measures that would ensure sustainable development for all.  He hoped that the remainder of the preparatory process would move forward in the spirit of

flexibility and cooperation shown this week and that the challenges of sustainable development could be met head on.

He urged all delegations to persuade their respective Heads of State and Government to attend the Johannesburg Summit.  Only if high level officials showed commitment to environment and development issues would the Summit be a success.  He said that the content of deliberations was also crucial to making the Summit a success.  The decisions taken today would go a long way to giving form to that content.  He hoped the Summit would point the way forward in the new century toward true sustainable development that would not only bring about an end to poverty but would also improve the quality of life and environment for all.

Statements were made by the representatives of Croatia, Egypt, Iran (on behalf of the “Group of 77” and China), Antigua and Barbuda, Sweden (on behalf of the European Union), Saudi Arabia, Libya, Yemen, Nigeria, Turkey, Peru, Bolivia and China. 

Committee Membership

Emil Salim (Indonesia) served as Chairman of the Commission.  The Vice-Chairpersons were Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti (Brazil), Richard Ballhorn (Canada), Jan Kara (Czech Republic), Ihab Gamaleldin (Egypt), Kiyotaka Akasaka (Japan), Ositadanma Anaedu (Nigeria), Alexandru Niculescu (Romania) and Lars-Goran Engfeldt (Sweden).  Vice-Chairperson Diane Quarless (Jamaica) also served as Rapporteur.

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