PRESS BRIEFING ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION

PRESS BRIEFING ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION

The high-level segment of the Commission on Sustainable Development’s current session had been “very successful” and had shown that the spirit of the Johannesburg Summit on sustainable development had carried through, correspondents were told at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon. 

Valli Moosa, the Commission’s Chairman and South Africa’s Minister for Environmental Affairs and Tourism, said participating ministers had been positive and had decided on a two-year cycle of work for the Commission.  For the remaining week of the session, delegates would be working on more marginal issues based on major decisions already made, including negotiations on a work programme and timing.

Commenting on the general mood of the first Commission session since the Johannesburg Summit, Nitin Desai, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, said the ministers had been much more positive in their outlook now than the “morning after” the Summit.  Successful elements from the Summit had been included in the current Commission session. 

For example, he continued, partnerships had played an important role in Johannesburg and the session had a “partnerships fair” component that included a “matchmaking” type of element.  As a result,  $1.2 billion had now been committed to partnerships, not just between governments and business, but also involving scientific institutions, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, trade unions and so on.  Also, a “learning centre” component in the session brought the focus onto “learning” about implementing sustainable development activities, rather than arguing about them.

Implementation had been at the core of the high-level segment, Mr. Moosa emphasized, recalling that the main outcome document from Johannesburg had been a Plan of Implementation.  There was no need to focus on policy, since sustainable development was now building on the Agenda 21 platform.  No new definition of sustainable development was needed.  Everyone was agreed on priorities and what needed to be done.  Questions now centered on how to implement measures.

Asked what had changed in the years between the 1992 Rio de Janeiro “Earth Summit” and Johannesburg, Mr. Desai said the aid climate was better now.  After Rio de Janeiro, development assistance fell.  Now, there was the commitment made in Monterrey for development, plus $5 billion from the United States and
$7 billion from Europe.  The latest figures out last week showed a significant real increase in development assistance.  So, the money was there, if there was a clear idea of what should be done with it. 

Also, he said, Rio de Janeiro had been a stand-alone event in many ways, its aims to be pursued through other conferences, such as the Beijing conference on women.  In addition, capacity-building had improved the situation for sustainable development activities in many areas where the Plan was to be implemented.  Johannesburg had come out with an action programme, rather than with concepts.  Some 30-plus programmes with timetables had come from it.

Asked about the choice of water and energy as themes, Mr. Moosa said the overall theme in Johannesburg had included poverty eradication.  Freshwater had been seen as a central issue impacting on other issues, in that context.  For example, a shortage of freshwater had a particularly harsh impact on poor women.  The cross-cutting issue involved others, such as health, sanitation and development.  Likewise, energy was linked to questions of natural resources and environment, all of which could be handled in a comprehensive way.  The themes were in line with a major message the ministers had delivered during the
high-level segment -- that there shouldn’t be a duplication of work and the Commission must take on the role of integrating sustainable development activities.  However, the choice of cross-cutting themes did not mean that other targets would be put on the back burner. 

Concerning a proposal Japan had put forward for worldwide recycling,
Mr. Moosa said no decision was expected now, although the question was important and would be handled in the context of sustainable consumption and production.  Ultimately, the issue would come down to arithmetic -- if everyone in China used as much paper as people in the United States, then the equation wouldn’t add up.  There simply weren’t enough trees.  Technologies were addressing the situation, making consumer goods out of materials already recycled.

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