NGO Statement

Statement to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Ministerial Regional Meeting for the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development

The following statement has been produced at a meeting on the 11 th of July, 2001, in Geneva and amended subsequent to the final discussion of the NGOs on the 13 th of July. The following organizations participated in the meetings and their deliberations:

ANPED-the Northern Alliance for Sustainability, Consumers International, Biotica, (Moldova), Citizens Network for Sustainable Development  (USA), IIED, European Eco-Forum, Society for Sustainable Living (Slovakia), the European Environment Bureau, UNED-Forum, Friends of the Earth International, Eco-Accord (Russia), Environment Liaison Centre International, Mediterranean Information Office-ESCDE, OXFAM and WWF International

The undersigned non-governmental organisations recognise the extreme urgency of the need to achieve sustainable development. The present generation may be among the last that could correct the current course of world development before it reaches a point of no return, due to depletion of the natural resource base and degradation of the environment.

Sustainable Development is a prerequisite for survival, not an option. The ecological footprint of most countries of the United Nations Economic Commission of Europe has an enormous and unacceptable impact undermining global sustainability. These nations have a responsibility to not only reduce that impact, but to take adequate measures to promote sustainable production and consumption throughout the world as well as the UN ECE region.

The undersigned NGOs reiterate the point that change must come now. The current backlash against economics- and transnational corporation- driven globalisation is the first sign that the public is no longer willing to wait. Already we see dwindling voter turn outs across the region, showing the general publics increasing lack of faith in their leaders. We urge the leaders of the member states of the UN ECE to take these warnings seriously and use this opportunity of the 10 year assessment of sustainable development in the UN ECE region to take the bold steps needed for sustainability to be achieved

Since the end of the 80s, the political changes within the region have led to the creation of a new group of countries known as the Countries in Transition. These countries face enormous economic, social and environmental problems during their transition period. They need further recognition of their specific position at the global level, and continuous support in order to integrate in the global system.

The above should not obscure the fact that the UN ECE region also includes most of the major economies of the world wielding substantial political power. These countries also have a special responsibility in restoring the constructive dialogue between north and south on a global strategy for sustainable development. This dialogue has seriously deteriorated in the period after the Earth Summit in 1992, for example due to the broken promise of increased ODA levels and the current crisis of the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol.

We urge the ministers of the UN ECE area to show the courage to move towards sustainable development. The planet and its people cannot and will not wait another 10 years for their leaders to take sustainability seriously. If these intentions are genuine, meaningful targets and short timelines should be agreed. We therefore applaud the inclusion of specific action targets, yet calling for a review of progress after nearly a decade, is absolutely not sufficient. These specific action points should end the “crisis of implementation” of agreed environmental and social agreements. Implementation and ratification of existing agreements, such as those related to, inter alia, sustainable water use, consumer protection, biosafety, labour rights, climate, desertification, hazardous substances and others and establish policy coherence between the use of financial instruments and sustainable development goals, including the reform of agricultural policies, will already be of great value.

In order to deal with this “crisis of implementation”, ministers will have to identify and recognize the fundamental barriers to achieving sustainability. A strategy to overcome these barriers is long overdue.

These barriers include:

• the influence of corporate lobbyists;
• policy integration moving forward more in rhetoric than in institutional change;
• double-bind in assumptions and philosophies underlying policies;
• the promotion of consumerism by advertising; and
• the irresponsibility of mass-news media by failing to inform the public about the importance of sustainable development and the serious consequences of its neglect.

In order to overcome these barriers, the undersigned NGOs urge the UN ECE governments to pay specific attention to the action points in the following 5 key areas:

I - Governance for Sustainable Development

Since UNCED, a strong governance structure to support sustainable development has not been created. Instead, the most influential international and national institutions promote unsustainable principles and goals. Current global regimes, dealing with sustainability, based on voluntary measures, find themselves in a crisis of implementation while economic institutions such as the WTO have been able to enforce compliance through sanctions.

Subsidiarity

·        the devolution of decision-making needs to be enabled by designing supportive policy frameworks at higher levels of government for local action.

Environmental and social rights

·        central to this policy framework is the right to a healthy and safe environment for citizens and communities. These should complement the implementation of existing social and economic rights. Global sustainability requires effective participation of civil society.supported by the right to information and access to justice. WSSD decisions should fully embody Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration.

Policy integration

·        Agenda 21 calls on countries to prepare national strategies for sustainable development.  Recent positive experience supporting the development of national strategies in 8 developing countries has provided useful lessons on the integration of sustainable development into a broad range of national activities, and engaging civil society. This has been supported by the OECD – the challenge now is for the same approach to take hold in all UN ECE states. At present sustainable development is peripheral to core economic and social planning.

·        Every nation and international agency should undertake an overall policy and legislation review to identify those areas where existing policy and legislation are working against the implementation of sustainable development strategies. Such reviews should be done in consultation with key stakeholders. This review should be concluded by 2002.

Realising global governance for sustainable development

Official development assistance, foreign direct investment and international trade should all be guided by principles of accountability as to whether they undermine or contribute to sustainable development. Approaches to be pursued in post-WSSD governance structures should include the following:

·        The social and environmental impacts of trade and investment should be comprehensively measured and publicised, and when negative, addressed.

·        Voluntary initiatives should be evaluated to assess their actual contribution to sustainable development

·        International financial flows should be better targeted to serve the needs of the people and protect the environment. Both public and private investment, including export credit

·        agencies should be subject to clearly formulated conditions based on Agenda 21

·        Institutions should be developed to conduct dispute resolution on environmental conflicts

·        Industrialized nations should fulfil their promise to reserve 0,7% of their GDP for official development assistance by the year 2005. The declining trend of ODA should be reversed in order to restore the global commitment to sustainable development.

II - Sustainable consumption and production patterns and natural resource use.

The economies of the countries of the UN ECE region have moved further away from

sustainability since 1992. In practise society and nature are still bearing the costs of unsustainable economic activities. Little progress has been made in reforming taxes and subsidies to make them support sustainability..The UN ECE and WSSD should insist that governments implement their Agenda 21 commitments to develop national policy frameworks and plans of action to promote sustainable consumption and production patterns. The starting point for this should be the implementation of the UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection as revised in 1999.

More specifically, we call for:

·        Developing sustainability impact assessments of all major policies including trade investment and subsidies.

·        Ensure the provision of innovative and reliable information to consumers including through the use of eco-labels. Prevent misleading environmental claims.

·        Implement Agenda 21 commitments to reform subsidies, including export credit agencies. Set up an intergovernmental working group with NGO participation to examine barriers and strategies to implementing subsidy reform. Phase out environmentally perverse subsidies by 2005, particularly in energy and agriculture.

·        Ecological tax reform with a view to reducing environmental damage, promoting technological innovation and reducing unemployment. Areas of priority are transport, agriculture, and other resource use (including fossil fuels).

·        Greening public procurement, taking into account the life cycle of the products and services,

·        Developing a pan-European instrument on strict liability for environmental damage, based on the 1993 Lugano Convention. Make the Convention applicable to nuclear and transboundary damage.

·        Preparing and implementing national and river basin integrate water resources management plans, with the involvement of civil society, and report progress by the third World Water Forum in Tokyo in 2003

·        Promotion of sustainable agriculture and food systems with the aim of ensuring food security and food safety.

·        Reduction of wasteful energy production and consumption patterns and promotion of a supply of sustainable renewable energy sources and move to ratify the Kyoto Protocol

III - The framework for corporate, social and environmental responsible behaviour

Voluntary guidelines and codes for governing corporate behaviour have had only limited impact.

The current trend to replace mandatory with voluntary measures should be reversed. A policy and legal framework is needed that allows communities and citizens to assert their rights as a balance to corporate power and that results in corporate social and environmental responsible behaviour and equitable access to resources..We therefore urge Governments to:

·        Establish high minimum social, environmental, labour and human rights standards for corporate activities.

·        Establish better international controls over mergers and monopolies;

·        Support as appropriate existing multi-stakeholder initiatives to develop corporate reporting guidelines on environmental labour and social performance and impacts, making them mandatory where necessary.

·        Legislate to ensure effective sustainability impact assessments and prior consultation with affected communities; to guarantee legal rights of redress for adversely affected communities; to secure liability for corporate breaches of national and international laws or agreements;

·        Introduce Extended Producer Responsibility policies;

·        Establish community rights of access to and control over the resources needed to enjoy healthy and sustainable life, including consultation rights and royalties for resources expropriated by corporations; and

IV - Poverty eradication

Poverty eradication should be one of the highest priorities of the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development and of the UN ECE area.

Poverty is an increasingly severe problem in the countries of the UN ECE, especially within the countries in transition. Poverty eradication is an indispensable requirement for establishing sustainable consumption.

The members of the UN ECE area should develop a bold action plan, or a “new global deal”, in which the promise of development is kept. Global and national liberalised market economies will not by themselves eradicate poverty; indeed they can worsen it and exacerbate inequalities.

Positive social and economic measures are needed to eliminate poverty.

The UN ECE should play a vigorous role in overcoming poverty and assuring that the poorest populations can at least meet their basic needs.

The OECD convention to combat corruption and bribery is a step in the right direction to

ensuring efficient use of the financial resources at the receiving end.

Other measures such as debt reduction, payment for ecological services, market access for products from the poor, and the expenditure of export credits and outward investment incentives should be directed at furthering the goal of poverty eradication and sustainable development in general at the host end.

V - Education for Sustainability

Education and training are essential preconditions for the transition to sustainable development.

We refer to the 20-20 principle from the Social Summit in 1995, and urge Governments of the UN ECE region to increase substantially their allocations to education

The process of introducing environmental education started in Tbilisi in 1977 and evolved through Article 36 of Agenda 21 and Thessaloniki-1997 where specific recommendations to focus education on sustainability were adopted. This process should be continued and enhanced at the Johannesburg WSSD.

·        In follow-up, governments should meet their earlier commitments to provide appropriate frameworks and allocate resources for nation-wide programs of formal, non-formal and informal life-long education for sustainability with active involvement of civil society.

·        Governments of the UN/ECE region should furthermore commit themselves to develop a Pan-European Strategy on Education for Sustainability to be adopted at the Kiev Ministerial Conference “Environment for Europe” (2003).

·        The Strategy should become the basis for National Action plans on Education for Sustainability.

·        On the specific actions in the UN/ECE region we recommend that educational programmes are expanded to include not only children and students, but also adults, including in particular, decision makers. Special training programmes on sustainable development should be designed.

Signed by the NGOs mentioned at the beginning of the statement.