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Special Session of the General Assembly to Review and Appraise the Implementation of Agenda 21

Late Breaking News from Earth Summit +5

Updated 24 June 1997

 On Tuesday, participants at the 19th UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) heard 45 statements in Plenary from 19 Heads of State or Government, 1 Crown Prince, 20 governmental leaders, 3 heads of international organizations and 2 NGOs. An additional eight representatives from international organizations addressed the Committee of the Whole (COW).

Negotiations on the Proposed Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21 (the proposed name for the document that has so far been called the "draft outcome") continued throughout the day in the COW and several sub-groups. In the morning, Amb. John Ashe (Antigua and Barbuda) convened consultations on cross-sectoral issues. In the afternoon, discussions in the COW focused on the draft political statement. In the evening, there were further consultations on the means of implementation and forests.

Three ministerial contact groups were established on finance, forests and climate change. These groups are expected to provide the political muscle to help reach agreement on some of the thorniest issues in the draft political statement and the draft outcome. The ministerial constultations on finance began on Tuesday afternoon. Consultations on forests, and possibly climate change, will begin on Wednesday.

Ministers Jan Pronk (Netherlands) and Jakaya Kikwete (Tanzania) chaired afternoon informal ministerial consultations on finance issues. The ministers agreed that UNCED's financial targets for funding sustainable development have to be reconfirmed, and they deplored the overall decline in ODA. They committed to do their very best to reverse the trend, although some noted domestic political difficulties. One of the suggestions discussed by participants "to keep each other alert" was a flexible mechanism to allow States to regularly put their own record on the table and to engage in discussion within such a framework.

It is likely that the ministers will be able to reach agreement on the most difficult issues in the documents, as they did in Rio. The big question that must be asked, however, is if the ministers will be able to put pressure on their governments to actually implement any of these commitments.

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