ENB:09:06
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BRAZIL:
Amb. Rubens Ric£pero, Brazilian Minister of the Environment and the Amazon Region, noted the innovative principles of the Convention, such as the recognition of the intrinsic value of biological diversity. He said that the extent to which developing countries will implement their commitments depends on developed countries' implementation of their commitments related to financial resources and transfer of technology. He noted that in relation to the interim financial mechanism, the notion of "global benefit" is not reflected in the Convention and that the incremental costs incurred by developing countries in implementing the Convention bear no relation whatsoever to any measure of global benefit. The role of this Committee is to reflect on the criteria to be established by the COP for the developing countries and the financial mechanism to be used. He said that there is no room for exotic notions alien to this Convention.
The provisional agenda allowed for less than half of the first morning to deal with procedural issues, including the election of the Bureau, the adoption of the agenda and programme of work. These matters, however, were not easily resolved by the Committee. Despite an attempt by the Secretariat to facilitate informal consultations between Governments on these procedural matters before the beginning of the session, delegates still needed time for additional consultations. When all was said and done, almost a day and a half was spent on these procedural matters, at the expense of discussion on the substantive issues.