Address by Klaus Töpfer, Executive Director
of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
to the Regional Ministerial Meeting
for the World Summit on Sustainable Development
Geneva, 24-25 September 2001
Geneva, 24 September 2001
Mr. President, Honourable Ministers, Executive Secretary of
the UNECE,
Distinguished delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Less than two weeks ago the world was
shocked by a terrorist attack which took the life of over 6000 innocent people
and threatened the very foundations of modern society and democracy.
We all feel deep compassion for the families
of the victims and those who lost their lives in the rescue operations. As has
been mentioned by Kofi Annan, this was an attack on humanity.
In Nairobi, Kenya, where UNEP is
headquartered, the terrible events brought back memories of the attack on the
US Embassy there where over 220 people lost their lives.
Fighting and preventing terrorism now
requires our common attention and commitment. Its challenges are new and
manifold.
On our way to the World Summit on
Sustainable Development in Johannesburg next year we should not shy away from
the consequences but explore ways to see how we can support the unfolding
world wide campaign against terrorism. And, I totally agree with what the
President has said here today: there can be no justifications at all for
terrorism.
…/
Ladies and Gentlemen:
We know that the combination of poverty and
environmental degradation contributes significantly to feelings of
marginalisation and despair.
Therefore, tackling these underlying causes
will help to promote sustainable development and responsible prosperity for
all people around the world. It will make the world a safer place for all of
us and for future generations to come.
This is the most important goal of next year’s
Summit – the goal that co-operation and solidarity can overcome poverty in a
responsible way.
We in UNEP consider it both our duty and
privilege to assist you in striving towards reaching tangible results. Results
that will present globalisation with a human face, to quote Kofi Annan once
more.
This meeting is the first of five regional
preparatory meetings for the WSSD, bringing together countries of highly
different levels of development, ranging from the wealthy regions in North
America and Western Europe to those in abject poverty in some of the NIS.
In that sense your deliberations have a
special meaning and significance for the work in the other regions and at the
global level.
I am therefore confident that you will
succeed in negotiating a political message and providing constructive input to
the forthcoming discussions in preparation of the Summit in Johannesburg.
I am aware that the negotiation process has
generated a wealth of information, ideas and clarifications of prevailing
priorities and positions on issues of major environmental concern. Again, this
is a real help for all the other regional preparatory meetings.
I want to pay special tribute to the
contributions and inputs of major groups and other members of civil society.
In UNEP, we were privileged to assist and
facilitate the meetings and activities of some of them, including ECO-ACCORD
and ECOFORUM, the Northern Alliance for Sustainability, the European Partners
for Environment, the (REC) Regional Environment Centre for Central and Eastern
Europe, and the coalition of Women's groups. And, I am also extremely happy
that we have a very close co-operation with indigenous groups, such as the
Inuit in the Arctic region.
The results of their efforts, meetings and
analyses, which also benefited from generous financial support from Norway,
Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, have been widely distributed
and have many times prodded us to critically review our own preparatory work.
For this meeting, we prepared a special
issue of UNEP’s Teen Planet's magazine that is available at the UNEP stand
outside this Conference Room. I am grateful to Minister Larsen from Sweden for
the support from his country for this publication.
I also want to underline our very close and
intensive co-operation with private business.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
We in UNEP highly welcome the assessment
report which points to and confirms concerns emerged in our own GEO process
about the state of sustainable development in the ECE region.
The major trends identified in the
environment of the ECE region and its management have significance not only
for the priority setting and policy debate in the region itself.
The fact that later this week many of the
same delegations will meet here in Geneva to discuss and establish the agenda
for the next "Environment for Europe" Conference in Kyiv in May
2003, already signals the obvious interdependence and the links between the
European process with the WSSD and its preparatory process.
The trends also coincide and impact on
developments in other regions and on the world more broadly.
As part of the WSSD preparation process, I
just had the pleasure to be for two days in Central Asia, in Almaty, where we
launched the regional environmental action plan for this region.
Coming back to the trends I want to mention
the increasing pressure on natural resources, the need for promoting the
decoupling of economic growth from environmental pressure and degradation,
including the consequences and impact on the resource rich and exporting
countries, the international trade negotiations and technology development and
transfer.
I also agree with the reference to the
parallel trends and the call to vigorously promote science for decision-making
including its linkage with the use and application of the precautionary
approach, and its potential impact on the global debate on trade and
environment.
The combination of technology progress, the
use of human capital, inventions and innovations must be used for sustainable
development in a responsible balance between risk and precaution. Science must
play a very important role in Johannesburg. And, we have to be aware of
principle 15 of the Rio Declaration.
What is significant furthermore is that in
this region, with so many developed countries, the Ministerial Statement
recognises that environmental problems and their solutions cannot be separated
from the overall need to alleviate poverty, promote equity and foster economic
growth.
There needs to be a continuous translation
of the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities into real
assistance and support for poverty alleviation and sustainable development in
the developing countries and economies in transition, in particular in the NIS.
Living up to the promises of Rio for
increasing ODA for this purpose is a commitment for developed countries which
urgently needs to be put in practice and which will underscore and mark the
success of the WSSD.
Allow me to quote the figures from your own
assessment report. ODA in the ECE region in 1992 was $US 48.5 billion. In 1999
it was $US 39.9 billion. It was not as promised in Rio – an increase from
0.4 to 0.7. It was really a decrease and I believe it is absolutely necessary
that we must have a common conviction to reverse this trend, integrated of
course in a policy to strengthen good governance around the world.
And I also want to underline what was
mentioned by the ECE Executive Secretary concerning the Foreign Direct
Investment. We have a huge increase but the OECD countries have a share of
79.4 per cent while the share of Africa is only 1.5 per cent.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Let me say a few words about the preparatory
process which you have put in the hands of UNEP, that of International
Environmental Governance.
We have come a long way since UNEP’s GC
decision 21/21 creating the framework for the negotiations on international
environmental governance.
Many of you welcomed the progress made when
we met in Algiers around two weeks ago.
The wealth of reports and documents as well
as of our discussions and the ideas proposed, form a sound foundation for the
building blocks that we have been asked to develop for the next meeting;
building blocks, with the Global Ministerial Environment Forum, with the
Environment Management Group, with Finance, with the Multi-lateral Environment
Agreements and, as added in Algiers, with regard to sustainable development.
We are happy and encouraged by the
unequivocal support of this region for a stronger UNEP with a predictable and
secure financial base.
We stand ready to continue and strengthen
our relationship, service and support to the MEA's, the UN system and the
environmental community at large.
Talking about priorities, I have to return
and add a few words to what I said earlier about fighting poverty and managing
the environment as being two sides of the same coin.
UNEP as you know is headquartered in Kenya
in the middle of a continent where poverty prevails and economic growth and
development is and has to be the first priority.
But at the same time, through our daily
contacts we appreciate the way in which developing countries look at and
perceive the environment agenda of Europe and the ECE region at large.
To the countries of the South, sustainable
development first and foremost requires policies which respond to their social
and economic needs.
As the person in the United Nations system
responsible for the environment I have to underline again and again that in
Johannesburg we won’t have an environment summit, we will have a summit on
sustainable development.
Global environmental policies and priorities
should be made conducive to meeting those needs.
The ECE and its member countries can
demonstrate leadership in overcoming the hurdles on that road, not only by
making their consumption less resource intensive and internalising the related
environmental costs, but particularly through providing technical assistance,
technology transfer and making their markets more accessible for products from
the South.
The challenge of the Summit therefore is how
to construct, agree upon and carry forward such a global deal.
The WSSD also provides a unique opportunity
for us to support the fundamental values and targets embedded in the
Millennium Declaration and make sustainable development the business of all
stakeholders involved. I believe sustainable development indicators and
targets should be developed parallel to the development goal in the Millennium
Declaration.
Through the Global Compact we should work to
ensure that the private sector becomes a full partner in the efforts to secure
lifestyles and development patterns which are environmentally sound and
sustainable in the long run.
Jointly we should develop a new culture of
environmental accountability; one of a full acceptance and rigorous
application of the polluter pays principle and the precautionary approach in
investment and technology decisions, while promoting cleaner and more resource
efficient technologies.
We must also strive to enhance the
implementation of the global chemicals agenda.
The quest for strategic approaches to
international chemicals management should be part of the hallmarks of the WSSD
preparatory process.
We may look at Johannesburg as a momentum
and a step forward towards establishing and improving enforcement and
compliance regimes which hold polluters accountable and promote packages of
positive measures for those economies in transition and developing countries
which need assistance in this field.
I want to highlight the importance of
liability and the lifecycle approach.
A last issue which I want to briefly
highlight concerns access to information, public participation in decision
making and access to justice in environmental matters.
You in the ECE region have developed a
convention to help ensure these public rights.
The principles underlying the convention
were earlier formulated and endorsed in the Rio Declaration and in Agenda 21.
Their crucial relevance for sustainable
development is undisputed, and the Summit should help to shape the framework
and enhance the potential for their application worldwide.
Your continuous support to UNEP's
information resource network and its outreach and capacity building programmes
will certainly facilitate this process.
The road to Johannesburg is not going to be
easy.
Many questions remain to be answered.
I have just elaborated a number of them.
How can we alleviate the poverty of the
majority of the world population without increasing the consumption that is
depleting our natural resources?
How can we achieve, especially in the
developed world, sustainable consumption patterns?
Can we turn commitment to environmental
goals into action?
Can we ensure compliance with multilateral
environmental agreements?
Can we link the environment with the
international trade and development agenda, without any green protectionism,
but with the responsibility for the poor?
Does the international community have the
political will to put in place and carry out a greatly strengthened
institutional structure for international environmental governance for
sustainable development?
Together with our partners and colleagues in
ECE we have undertaken with enthusiasm to assist you in tackling these
questions and preparing for the global debate, anticipated at the WSSD.
We in UNEP look forward to continuing
servicing the preparatory process in this and other regions and next year in
the context of the CSD, which acts as the global preparatory body for the
Summit.
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Ref: ECE/ENV/01/12