Fifth Conference of the Parties (COP-5) to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal

Basel, Switzerland; 6-10 December 1999

Friday 10 December 1999 : High Level Segment

Thursday's high level segment included addresses by Philippe Roch, Klaus Töpfer's presentation of a message from UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan; speeches by Moritz Leuenberger, Klaus Töpfer, and Dr. Mostafa K. Tolba; and a special 10th Anniversary celebration of the Basel Convention complete with cake, candles, drummers and carnival characters.

The UN System : "sharing one world"

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's message to the Ministers and delegates of Basel COP-5 was delivered by UNEP Executive Director Klaus Töpfer [right]. The Secretary-General's address indicated that each year, an estimated 3 million tons of toxic and hazardous waste cross national borders. In 10 years, the Basel Convention has put hazardous wastes and their indiscriminate disposal on the global agenda. So, with implementation in mind, the Parties were urged to strengthen old alliances and create new ones by reaching out to non-governmental organizations, industry and other groups that possess the knowledge, technology and financial resources needed to build capacity in managing wastes. Developing countries have benefitted from this work by being prevented from becoming the world's dumping grounds and now the challenge lies in keeping them on the path to sustainable development. And though these challenges are great, Annan stressed that the UN system could be relied upon - because "we share one world..."

	Moritz Leuenberger, Swiss Minister of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communication.

In his own address to the Parties, Klaus Töpfer [right] encouraged participants to remember those who made it happen: those that drafted the framework for one of the most important agreements in place. In thanking those architects of current policies, Topfer brought attention to the former UNEP Executive Director, Mostafa Tolba, and Greenpeace - the organization that investigated the illegal transport of wastes 10 years ago. The past 10 years can be viewed as proof that multilateral agreement is a suitable legal basis for importatant trade relations, and for collaboratively enjoying economic advantages, however it also strengthens the value of a precautionary principle. It was stressed that the Basel Convention has to prove that globalization must be combined with respect for regional identity, in line with the precautionary principle to ban the movement of wastes from OECD to non-OECD countries, focussing on development of economic instruments, management of environmentally-sound wastes and stimulating re-use, recycling, recovery and final disposal of wastes. Consumption patterns must be changed, and in the policy arena, there was encouragement to collaborate with PIC and POPs with hope that revisiting in another ten years would see them just as successful.

"The road ahead is still long ...but I am still optimistic that we will reach there one day, and soon."

Former Executive Director of UNEP and guest of honour, Dr. Mostafa K. Tolba, delivers his speech as carnival characters await 10th Anniversary celebrations of the Basel Convention.

Dr. Mostafa Tolba reflected on the last 10 years of the Basel Convention, noting how far the Parties have moved the Convention. He congratulated the achievements of the past 10 years by noting that the ban on transboundary movements of hazardous wastes was in place as a decision of the Parties and an amendment to the Convention; that regional and sub-regional centres for training and the transfers of technologies had been established and were functioning; and that the Secretariat had produced excellent quantitative reports tracking the production and movement of hazardous wastes and actions taken in response to the Convention. However Tolba expressed concern that the generation of hazardous wastes was still growing, and that there were still great difficulties in obtaining accurate and comparable data, and that there remained a "veil of silence over the generation and disposal of hazardous waste."

Basel Convention Official COP-5 Homepage : UNEP.
COP-5 Documents : UNEP's pre-session documents available in 6 languages.
 

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