National Preparations - United States

All governments have been asked by the UN to form a National Preparatory Committee to begin collecting information and input for this important process from all stakeholders.  To date, the United States has yet to do this.

As a result, CitNet and several other civil society organizations are moving forward by creating a US Citizens Preparatory Committee to ensure active participation from US citizens and civil society in the WSSD process, providing an avenue for American citizens' comments, ideas, and opinions to be voiced in South Africa.

Meetings and Reports by the US Citizens Preparatory Committee

• Oct 19: Report from Geneva on the Regional ECE Platform
  (Consultation with US government delegation; report from Geneva by NGO members; A separate civil society NGO strategy session was held after the multistakeholder/delegation consultation)
  • Summary
  • Meeting announcement
  • NGO strategy session summary (available to civil society NGOs, email info@citnet.org for a copy.)
  • USG Document: "Governance as a Foundation for Sustainable Development" - US Gov. Statement by Under Sec. of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky, presented Sept. 24, 2001 at second ECE PrepCom ministerial meeting
  • NGO Document: Joint NGO Statement, presented July 11, 2001 at first ECE PrepCom meeting
  • USG Document: Statement by US Government at first ECE PrepCom meeting [PDF]
    
    
• July 18: Multistakeholder Consultation on Food, Agriculture and Land Resources for the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development
  • Meeting announcement
    
    
• July 2: Prospects for Sustainability in North America, Europe and Countries in Transition: ECE Regional Preparations for the World Summit
  (Multistakeholder discussion about World Summit preparations in the US and priorities for the July 2001 ECE ministerial regional PrepCom meeting)
  • Summary
    
    
• Feb. 22: Introduction to the World Summit Process

CitNet Contributions and Activities

• Looking for Leadership: On the Road to a Sustainable America; Assessing US progress toward sustainability (a CitNet Powerpoint presentation given at the WASTE Summit in November)
• Addressing the Constraints to Implementing Agenda 21: A Challenge to North America and Europe (a CitNet paper presented at the first ECE PrepCom meeting in July 2001)
• US Watch Report: A Citizens Progress Report on Sustainability in the US (a proposed project of CitNet)

US Government Resources

• US Government report on US implementation of Agenda 21 (1997)
• The Council on Environmental Quality is responsible for the domestic aspects of WSSD issues, in conjunction with other departments.
• The State Department is the lead agency in WSSD affairs and coordinates foreign policy aspects related to WSSD issues, in conjunction with other departments. The primary place for State Department news on sustainable development and related events is OIIP's "Global Issues of Sustainable Development" site. Here is a list of recent State Department statements on sustainable development.
• US EPA's Strategic Plan for 2000-2005
• UNEP Environmental Profile on the United States

Other US NGO Preparations

Several US NGOs are planning to participate in the World Summit. As these NGOs create sections of their websites dedicated to the Summit, we will add them to this list:

• World Watch Institute has released their State of the World 2002 report, a special WSSD edition
• ICLEI (Int'l Council for Local Environmental Initiatives)
  • International
  • US and Canada
• Green House Network's World Youth Speakers Network on Climate Change
• The National Council for Science and the Enironment (NCSE) is holding a conference entitled "Sustainable Communities: Science and Solutions" on Dec. 6-7 in Washington, DC.