ENB:05:14
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ADOPTION OF THE REPORT OF THE WORKING GROUP:
The Chair
distributed the draft report of the Working Group and noted that
the Working Group's mandate is to look at new ideas and not to
ignore them because they are not yet developed. Egypt stressed his
recommendation that some small groups look at the issues of debt
swaps and national investment funds. The UK stated that the text
seemed balanced, but that it could be "punchier". Brazil, supported
by India, said there should be more concern with international
cooperation leading to new and additional financial flows. Colombia
agreed with Egypt that the most important elements in the document
are the recommendations the Working Group could make to the CSD on
future work. The Chair stated that as this was the first meeting,
he had very few submissions for concrete action. Benin supported
Egypt and called for the meeting to be suspended so that the
Secretariat could draft a concrete list of ideas and proposals for
the CSD to consider. Germany, Chile, Uganda and Norway endorsed
this idea. Canada said that Ministers at the High-Level Segment of
the CSD would want something concrete to bring home with them. The
Chair said that there was a prevailing opinion that the text was
good and short list of recommendations would be prepared by the
Secretariat. Lithuania, supported by Poland, Hungary and the Czech
Republic, expressed concern that the countries with economies in
transition were not mentioned.
The Chair suggested that the Secretariat prepare a short text that
would list the concrete recommendations to the CSD which would
conclude the report of the Working Group. It should include the
following recommendations from the working group to the CSD, and
contained the following points: a) urges the more active
involvement of the business and financial community (including
NGOs) in efforts to most effectively mobilize financial resources
for the implementation of Agenda 21, including through the
proposals contained in this report; b) urges all parties concerned
to: strengthen substantially the capacity of international
financial institutions and other international organizations to
more effectively and demonstrably implement Agenda 21; promote
policy measures that encourage and attract foreign direct
investment and other private capital flows; consider further
external debt reduction and relief measures, including the search
for innovative ways to address the debt problem; promote the
mobilization of domestic financial resources for sustainable
development, including through policy reforms and the use of
economic instruments and incentives; consider the use of an
effective multilateral forum to best promote the coordination of
policy reforms for sustainable development; and c) promotes the
search for an optimal mix of policies and funding sources to
finance sectoral areas as suggested in this report. The Working
Group also recommends that the following proposals need further
examination and detailed study through appropriate means, including
workshops, case studies and pilot projects:
- the concept of international commodity-related environmental agreements (ICREAs);
- reducing military spending; and
- the feasibility, legal modalities and administrative aspects of such measures as international emission charges, internationally tradeable permits, taxes on air travel, and fees and arrangements to cover international environmental disasters, including those related to transportation of hazardous wastes and materials.
The Draft Report of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Finance states that
in future reports it would be useful if greater emphasis were
placed in the reports and during discussion on exchanging of
individual country experiences. It was recommended that in the
future, prior to or during CSD sessions, an informal meeting with
representatives of the private sector, including the international
financial institutions and business groups, be organized with a
view to facilitating consideration of financial resources for
sustainable development. Section A covers Growth, Trade and Terms
of Trade. There is a basic consensus that further trade
liberalization will strengthen the expansion of world trade to the
benefit of all countries. Suggestions were made that further
consideration could be given to the concept of international
commodity-related environmental agreements (ICREAs). In Section B,
International Financial Resources, the report says that ODA will
continue to play an important role in meeting investment
requirements. Multilateral financial institutions should increase
significantly their capacity to address sustainable development.
The overall favorable growth of foreign direct investment, in
particular in developing countries, is encouraging and needs to be
further promoted through appropriate policies. Uganda called for
the implementation of the Trinidad and Toronto terms. National
Financial Resources was covered in Section C. A number of policies
were discussed, such as the role of environmental taxation,
property rights, subsidies, military spending and private sector
investment in environmental infrastructure. A reform of the fiscal
system could change the mix of taxes towards environmental taxes,
thus, bringing the economy closer to sustainable development by
stimulating employment, economic growth and resource conservation
and discouraging resource depletion and environmental pollution.
Section D, Innovative Financial Mechanisms, states that
international mechanisms for the financing of sustainable
development could include international emission charges, tradeable
permits on greenhouse gas emissions, taxes on air travel, and fees
and arrangements to cover international environmental disasters.
more work needs to be done,especially to examine their feasibility,
legal modalities and administrative arrangements. Section F deals
with Multilateral Consideration of Policy Reforms and states that
the restructuring of the world economy called for by Agenda 21,
requires a long-term, on-going, incremental process. Existing fora
or a process modeled on proven international negotiating processes
(a series of "Green Rounds") should be considered. Under Section F,
Financing Sectoral Clusters, there was an emphasis on the need to
focus on pollution prevention rather than on "end-of-pipe"
solutions.
The Working Group took note of the communication received from the
Chairman of the Intersessional Ad Hoc Open-Ended Working
Group on Technology Transfer regarding the proposals on measures
and mechanisms to finance the transfer of environmentally sound
technologies. These proposals fit within the menu of funding
mechanisms discussed by the Working Group on Finance. In this
regard, it will be necessary to apply the entire range of financial
instruments and arrangements identified in the report of the
Finance Group to fund technology assistance, in particular to
developing countries, besides those identified by the Working Group
on Technology.
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