Late Breaking News from CSD-5

Updated 16 April 1997

A delegate to CSD-5 conferring with CSD Chair Dr. Mostafa Tolba (Egypt).

Note: There will be no meeting of the CSD on Thursday, 17 April, due to the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

On Wednesday, CSD-5 delegates completed their first reading of Sections C.3 (Means of Implementation) and B (Assessment of Progress Reached After Rio) of the draft final document. Informal consultations were held on institutional arrangements, CSD programme of work and forests. Delegates also conducted dialogue sessions with local authorities and farmers.

Delegates and NGOs marked CSD-5's halfway point with the now obligatory speculation on the pace of negotiations and likely quality of the outcome. In a telling admission, at least one developing country delegate indicated he has not yet made up his mind on whether to recommend that his head of State would find it worthwhile to attend the Special Session, given the continued absence of movement on resourcing Rio commitments. This has sparked fears that a downgraded, not-so-"Special" Session could be the price developed countries will pay for their record on funding Rio commitments over the past five years. Others have voiced growing frustration at the developing countries' "prolific" demands for financial commitments. Meanwhile, with concerns that the sheer volume of text to negotiate (latest estimate: 60 pages) could result in an inconclusive CSD Session, members of the Bureau have been quashing "rumors" that extra negotiating time has been penciled in for the week before the Special Session.

Friday's issue of the Earth Negotiations Bulletin summarizes Wednesday's meeting. You can also download the Earth Negotiations Bulletin in either text or PDF format.