Press Conference on Earth Summit +5 Negotiations of Special Session Outcome

Introduced by Samsiah Abdul Majid, Spokesperson for the President of the General Assembly, Bagher Asadi and John Ash, Vice-Chairmen of the Commission on Sustainable Development and Derek Osborn, Co-Chairman of the Intersessional Working Group of the Commission, brief correspondents on the status of negotiations on sectoral areas being held in advance of the special session of the General Assembly to review the implementation of Agenda 21.

• Categories: Media / Press Conferences
• Video Length: 00:25:21
• Production Date: 20 June 1997
• Asset Language: English
• Personal Subject: BAGHER ASADI; JOHN WILLIAMS ASHE
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT - UNCED
• Subject Topical: FARMING; FINANCE; FORESTS; HEALTH; INDUSTRY; NEGOTIATION; OCEANS; POLLUTION; POPULATION; POVERTY; TRADE
• MAMS Id: 2350869
• Parent Id: 846462

Description

Mr. Osborn said that since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), held at Rio de Janeiro in 1992, there had been good progress in some areas, at the local level and in some of the major sectors in industry and farming. However, the build-up of greenhouse gases was getting worse, oceans were still being polluted and over-fished, forest loss and desertification continued and there were important cross-sectoral problems of poverty and difficult economic conditions in many parts of the world.

Agreement had been reached on many priorities in negotiations during the past week, he said. At the special session, Heads of State and Government would be presented with wide agreement on a large number of issues and an assessment on what needed to be done. However, there had been no agreement on several key issues, so that the leaders would need to help resolve outstanding problems and give the political impetus and drive needed to carry the whole process forward with renewed vigour in the years ahead.

He said the three sectoral issues to be discussed next week included the atmosphere and the nature of the commitment and the targets and measures countries would undertake; better sustainable management of forests; and transportation, particularly proposals by European delegations for an aviation fuel tax. The idea of such a tax, which would have to be negotiated internationally, was to make sure the aviation sector bore its proper environmental and economic costs and to use some of the proceeds to support environmental action. There was opposition as well as support for such a tax.

Mr. Asadi said the main problem concerning the conservation and sustainable management of forests was how to continue the intergovernmental dialogue and action. The intergovernmental panel on forests had come up with good ideas and proposals which were waiting implementation. The question was whether or not to have an international convention on forests and whether to have it now or at some future time. Yesterday, the first informal consultations opened the divide between countries over the issue. Consensus would have to wait for some input from the heads of delegations next week.

Mr. Ashe spoke on the status of negotiations on cross-sectoral issues -- population, health, poverty, trade and finance. With trade and finance, there was a vast gulf between what developing countries would like to see and what developed countries could offer, he said. Negotiations aimed to bridge that gap and delegates hoped to remove most of the outstanding brackets by tomorrow's session, leaving the remaining ticklish issues to the Heads of State.

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MEETINGS COVERAGE