The need for serious international cooperation to advance the cause of Agenda 21 over the next five years was strongly stressed by several delegations this afternoon, as the special session of the General Assembly continued its debate on the implementation of the programme. Speakers expressed relief at renewed pledges from the developed countries to meet obligations dating from the Rio Conference on environment and development in 1992, while pledging to continue their own efforts to make the next review exercise successful.

The international community was called upon to be creative in its approach to the implementation. The special session heard a suggestion for a standby international "Green Force", empowered to act in ecological crises. Governments were also told to consider an innovative financial mechanism called "debt for nature".

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) reported that nearly all regions of the world are now experiencing lower fertility and lower population growth. Although global population continues to grow at an annual rate of 81 million, the UNFPA noted that it does help in the review of Agenda 21 that there is now a clear understanding that environmental and population approaches to sustainable development are not alternatives, but opposite sides of the same coin. "If we approach them from the point of view of the rights and needs of ordinary women and men and their children", the agency said, "we will be on the road to finding the long-sought balance among population, resources and the environment."

Addressing the special session this afternoon were the President of Hungary; the Vice-President of Malawi; the Crown Prince of Morocco; the Minister of Economic Planning and Development of Swaziland; the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Solomon Islands; the Minister of Science and Environment of Viet Nam; the Minister of Forestry and the Environment of Sri Lanka; and the Minister Secretary-General of the Presidency of Chile.

Worships of Haiti; the Minister of the Environment of Mongolia; the Minister of Planning and Development of Yemen; the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova; the Chairman of the Delegation of Ethiopia; and the Chairman of the Delegation of Bulgaria.

The Vice-Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment of Paraguay; the Permanent Representative of Mauritius; the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States; the Assistant Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference; the Executive Director of the UNFPA; and a representative of the Women's Environment and Development Organization also spoke.

The special session will meet again tomorrow at 10 a.m. to continue with its general debate on the implementation of Agenda 21.

For further details please see official record:
A/S-19/PV.6

For further details please see source:
MEETINGS COVERAGE

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