The strategy on Sustainable Development
-Hans Martin Bury, Cabinet Minister, Germany
No living at the expense of future generations-a basic
tenet of sustainable development. The political and social challenge this entails means
facing up to our responsibilities for future generations without neglecting the needs of
the present generation. As such, it is up to us to find creative and imaginative new ways
of achieving this goal. Listing no fewer that 21 aims and indicators relative to
sustainable development, the draft paper underlying the National Strategy on Sustainable
Development points the way towards the best prospects for a viable future for Germany.
Sustainable development is the common thread running through all areas relative to reform
policies, from national budget consolidation to tax reform, the law on old-age assets,
education and research, better energy management and new trends in agricultural policy.
Consequently, the strategy on sustainable development covers a wide range of topics,
including fair behavior towards present and future generations, social cohesion, quality
of life and international responsibility. The 21 indicators also aim in these directions.
For many years now economic growth, unemployment figures and inflation rates have been
regarded as key indications of the state of economy. On the stock exchange the German
share index DAX gives an overall picture of how the market is doing. The Strategy on
Sustainable Development needs such figure indexes, too. In future, therefore using the 21
indicators relative to sustainable development, the federal government will be able to
monitor progress on sustainable development at regular intervals; progress so far, aims
which have been achieved and areas which require more concentrated efforts in future.
The indicators are linked to specific-wherever
feasible-quantifiable targets, including reducing energy consumption by 50% by 2020
compared to 1990 levels. With regard to the area needed for housing and transport,
policies aim to reduce current levels of 130 hectare a day to a maximum of 30 hectares by
the year 2020.
Yet sustainable development is more than just a continuation
of environmental policy under another name. Sustainable Development is a modernization
strategy with enormous potential for innovation at economic, environmental and social
levels. We want to harness this potential for our own use.
Devising a national strategy on Sustainable Development
includes talks with relevant social groups. The public can also join in by offering ideas
and proposals via the Internet forum called Dialoge on Sustainable Development.
The publishing of the draft will launch the second phase of
the dialogue. The federal government will shortly approve the final version of the
National Strategy which will constitute Germany's contribution to the Johhanesberg World
Summit on Sustainable Development. Yet sustainable development can't be decreed at
national level, and it is only when the big players on the economic, social and political
stages rally to our support that we will be successful.
The author is also advisor to the Federal
Chancellor. Text courtesy: Deutschland E4 N1/2002. Embassy of Germany, Kathmandu.
-Environment-
The long march towards global management
By Loic Chauveau, Journalist for L' Express and Science
et Vie, France
Montreal and Kyoto Protocols, Washington or Basle
agreements, international text on environment multiplied over the last three decades of
the 20 th century. The 180 members of the United Nations are thus building, step by step,
a legal corpus that has not yet acquired that title. Today the impact of environmental
issues is stronger than ever before. They affect every sector of human activity and could
not care less about State borders. Whence the emerging idea of world
"governance" capable of imposing respect for our common possession: the Earth.
The first international conventions were signed at the end of
the 19 th century. "They were particularly concerned with preserving a few rare
animal species"', recounts Marie-Aimee Deana-Cote, responsible for monitoring
international text at the ministry of Town and Country Planning and the Environment, MATE.
In 1930, the Washington convention prohibiting dealing in
wild animal species marked an initial turning point. It is a world-ranging text that bans
trade in exotic animals in general, and ivory in particular. While this convention does
not provide for a monitoring or sanctions system for the countries, it is nevertheless
recognized by the WTO, a structure that has its own arbitration court." It is
difficult today to imagine an African country not complying with the Washington
convention', thinks Marie.Aimee Deana-Cote. The economic retaliatory measures would be too
punitive". This text is therefore an example for countries, including France, that
plead for "observance", a structure or procedure yet to be devised, the role of
which would be to monitor the application of international agreements by the signatory
States.
Historic steps: The Montreal Protocol is yet another
historical step. Signed in 1987, this text imposes the ban on all chlorofluoride, CFC
products present mainly in domestic or industrial cooling systems. The goal is to preserve
the stratosphere's ozone layer being eroded by chlorine emissions into the atmosphere. It
is the first time that a text has been signed by every nation in order to resolve a risk
that affects the entire planet to the same degree. The notion of 'sustainable
development', which first came into being at the Stockholm Summit in 1970, saw its first
practical expression in this.
Facilitated by the good will of the industrialists, the
success of the Montreal Protocol is undeniable. World CFC production was stopped
completely in 1994, and in 1999 an initial reduction was recorded in the hole in the ozone
layer above the North and South Poles. However, the CFCs already emitted will continue to
destroy the ozone layer for decades.
In 1992, the UN Conference on the Environment and
Development, known as the Earth Summit, in Rio de Janeiro, made official the signing of
several international texts as world-ranging as the Montreal Protocol. The conventions on
climate, biodiversity and combating desertification, however, are much more difficult to
apply. Almost ten years after the summit, biodiversity is still the object of negotiations
and combating desertification has remained in a state of deadlock. The Climate Convention
is the one that has made most progress, notably through the Kyoto Protocol signed in 1997.
This agreement provides for the reduction in the emissions of
six greenhouse gases responsible for heating up the planet's atmosphere and therefore for
climatic changes. This protocol was the subject of fierce negotiations, notably on the
exchange of emission quotas between States and on the importance attached to carbon holes,
forests, crops and oceans, which trap carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere.
Europe's proactive approach: These negotiations have
perpetuated the grouping of States on the bais of geographical proximity' political
philosophy or economic interest. The Umbrella group federates the most liberal states,
Australia, Canada, Iceland, Japan, Norway, New Zealand, Russia and the Ukraine, behind the
United States. The group of 77, led by India and China, represents the developing
countries. Finally, Europe is forming its identity as being less liberal in economic terms
and clearly more sensitive to environmental issues. Decisions are taken by the fifteen
within the bodies of the EU and enlarged as often as possible to include the countries of
Eastern Europe applying for membership.
"This is a realistic approach for France, explains
Bernard Rond of the international affairs department of MATE. " If one of our ideas
does not have unanimous support from the fifteen, it has little chance of prevailing on an
international scale"
In March 2001, the unilateral decision by the United States,
responsible for one quarter of the greenhouse gas emissions when they only represent 5% of
the world population, not to apply the Kyoto agreement enabled Europe to prove its
political unity and weight. In July of the same year, the signatory states decided, in
Bonn, to pursue this approach. The issue of the role of carbon holes was resolved after
heated discussions. In November, in Marrakech, the negotiators will make a start on the
legal wording of the agreement.
This proactive approach is a point in favor of the European
countries. Within the EU, France is close to the commitment made in Kyoto to maintain its
Co2 emissions at the 1990 level. In 2000, it emitted 108 million tonnes of carbon as
against 104.5 million in 1990, despite strong growth.
An effort towards harmonization:; Europe has now decided to
go even further by pushing the idea of "'governance". In the second half of 2000
during the French presidency of the EU, Europeans saw the need to coordinate environmental
agreements. Protocols and international agreements are piling up with no thought of
consistency, whereas structures such as the International Maritime Organization, IMO, the
International Civil Aviation Authority, ICAO, and even the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development, OECD, are superimposing their own rules. "'The efforts
being made are unsystematic, meetings are multiplying in th four corners of the world and
administrative procedures are inconsistent", laments Bernard Rond.
"Governance" would therefore consist of putting all
these agreements under one structure for harmonizing world agreements on conserving nature
and combating pollution. Logically, the UN program of the Environment, UNPE, should be the
appropriate place. But the UNPE does not have UN agency status like the WHO, for example.
Contribution by the States is not compulsory and, indeed, is rarely paid, including
France. The UNPE should therefore be strengthened, given a permanent budget and new
regulatory powers. The idea is on the right track. An intergovernmental group on
governance has already met on three occasions in 2001 and the idea should be put forward
to the States at the tenth anniversary conference of the Rio Summit, which will take place
in Johannesburg, South Africa, in September 2002. |
