You are viewing our old site. See the new one here

ENB:05:87 [Next] . [Previous] . [Contents]

PROPOSED PROGRAMME FOR THE FURTHER IMPLEMENTATION OF AGENDA 21

John Ashe (Antigua and Barbuda) continued to chair consideration of the outstanding cross-sectoral issues during all day and night meetings. Derek Osborn (UK) chaired a late night negotiation on sectoral issues. In 22(j) (eco-efficiency), the US and G- 77/CHINA disagreed on “the need to avoid” (US) and “avoiding” (G-77/CHINA) negative impacts on developing country export opportunities.

In 39(a) (CSD-9 on energy), SAUDI ARABIA said that he and 21 other countries wished to delete all but the first two sentences of the paragraph. Delegates agreed that preparations for the meeting should be initiated at CSD-7 and should use an open-ended, intergovernmental group of experts, to be held in conjunction with intersessionals for CSD-8 and CSD-9. On 40(e) (airline fuel tax), the EU proposed further studies on barriers to implementing such a tax.

On 99 (codification of international law), delegations agreed on a reformulation based on EU, MEXICAN and G-77 proposals, taking into account Chapter 39 of Agenda 21, particularly paragraph 39.1, and stating the necessity of continuing the progressive development and, as and when appropriate, codification of international law related to sustainable development. In 100 (implementation and [compliance] with international environmental instruments), the G-77/CHINA wanted to delete “compliance.” NORWAY objected.

Paragraph 102 (data collection) was agreed with a US amendment on “including, as appropriate, gender disaggregated data.” In 104 (Environmental Impact Assessments), the G-77/CHINA accepted that EIAs are a “useful national” tool and the US called for decisions not to be made before complete EIAs are available, where environmental values are at stake. The agreed text notes that EIAs are an important national tool, but deletes the reference to environmental values.

The Multi-Year Programme of Work for the CSD (1998-2002) was agreed. The overriding issues are poverty/consumption and production patterns. The 1998 sectoral theme will be “strategic approaches to freshwater management.” The outstanding chapters of the SIDS Programme of Action will also be reviewed. In 2001, atmosphere and energy will be the sectoral themes. One 2001 cross-sectoral theme will be international cooperation for an enabling environment.

The groups continued to revisit outstanding text during late night meetings.

[Return to start of article]