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ENB:05:14 [Next] . [Previous] . [Contents]

REQUIREMENTS, AVAILABILITY AND ADEQUACY OF FINANCIAL RESOURCES AND MECHANISMS:

Chile reiterated a concern expressed by Egypt, China and Norway to consider formal expansion of the Group for real partnership in calling for a special session in 6-8 months with the World Bank, GEF, NGOs, regional banks and the private sector. He supported an appendix to the report of the Working Group that would contain a breakdown of debt held by public and private creditors. In addition to listing financial mechanisms in the Secretary-General's report, he supported establishing a fund for protection of specific ecological preserves from ecological disasters. Sri Lanka said that new funding mechanisms need to be associated with new and innovative attitudes. The Republic of Korea stressed that national environmental funds play positive roles in environmental projects. Benin stated that it is time to apply the principle of debt for nature swaps to debt from the multilateral financial institutions. Australia said that debt swaps are useful but should not replace debt reduction. The UK supported full debt relief rather than funding additional spending. Cuba supported Colombia in stressing the importance of regional and sub-regional financing. Brazil stated that international focus is a priority. Morocco said that the Working Group's report should contain a clear link between structural adjustment and environmental protection.

Sweden stated that national environmental funds need a national strategy and institutional capacity to be able to distribute the monies within a fund. The US added that national sustainable development strategies could provide the framework for these strategies. Canada pointed out that the IUCN General Assembly established a programme to investigate national environmental funds. The Chair said that he had received a letter from Marius Enthoven, Chairman of the Intersessional Working Group on Technology, regarding financial arrangements and technology partnership. This letter recognized that the issue of technology also depends on the availability of financial resources and it is essential that new mechanisms and means for technology financing have to be explored and concrete and feasible mechanisms considered. Bolivia reiterated the need for swapping debt for environmentally sound technology transfer. China stressed non-marginalization of ODA. France worried that a number of countries are using "green" as protectionism, but supported eco-labelling at the international level for commodities. UNCTAD, supported by Norway, said that a good deal of work had been done on tradeable permits. UNCTAD and UNDP had also done work on international commodity-related environmental agreements (ICREAs). The Earth Council said that political support for ODA is needed if there is to be specific agreements for specific projects. World Citizens' Assembly said that political will could be mobilized.

The Chair urged that the growing list of possible financial mechanisms be applied to the relevant sectors before the CSD. The Netherlands, supported by Sweden, made a concrete recommendation to forward the sectoral papers to other meetings before the CSD's meeting in May, including the Netherlands conference on freshwater in March, the toxic chemicals meeting in Sweden in April, and the Habitat PrepCom in April. Egypt said that the CSD needs to know about the adequacy of financial resources, what is available, what is missing, how to go about getting these resources, and the options available. Colombia said the problem is not that there are no funds, but that donors lose control in a multilateral system, unlike in a bilateral agreement. She agreed with Brazil on the need for a more serious study of subsidies in financing. Brazil, and Uganda stressed the importance of ODA as an essential catalyst. UNDP agreed with Under-Secretary-General Desai on the need to narrow the range of options. The representative of the National Wildlife Foundation associated herself with the remarks of The Third World Network, that three issues are too large to leave out: structural adjustment, debt relief and terms of trade. The Cousteau Society stressed consideration of disarmament as investment. [Return to start of article]