WSSD-ENVIRONMENT:
Senior UN Official Pleads for Effective Climate Policies
by Ramesh Jaura
BONN, Aug 19 (IPS) - Effective climate
policies can contribute to progress on all the issues that
top the agenda of the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable
Development (WSSD), according to a senior United Nations official.
Recently UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
highlighted water, energy, health, agriculture and biodiversity
as issues ''requiring urgent action'' in Johannesburg.
In an interview with IPS, Joke Waller-Hunter,
executive secretary of the Bonn-based UN Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said: ''Climate change issues
are closely linked to those of sustainable development.''
Waller-Hunter, who replaced Michael Zammit-Cutajar
last May said: ”During the Convention's first decade,
the centrepiece of global negotiations was to agree on the
rules for its implementation. Our challenge now is to apply
those rules and to move climate change to the centre of national
policy-making and action by business and civil society.”
In fact, the contribution that action
on climate change can make to sustainable development was
emphasized by the Marrakech Ministerial Declaration, adopted
by the Conference of Parties (COP) last November in Morocco
as an input to the Johannesburg Summit.
The ministers called for capacity building,
technology innovation and cooperation with the biodiversity
and desertification conventions.
From their start at the Rio Earth Summit
in 1992, the three conventions - climate, biodiversity and
desertification - address the complex interactions among human
and natural systems and represent different aspects of the
same challenge, that is, how to ensure the sustainable exploitation
of the earth's resources, Waller-Hunter said.
The international community was working
through these conventions to promote economic and social development
while preserving living and non-living environment. Together,
the Rio Conventions offered a sound platform for promoting
sustainable development over the coming decade.
''Their practical toolkits and their
focus on partnerships and synergy show the way forward. Accelerating
action under the three agreements will go a long way toward
meeting the goals set by the Johannesburg Summit,'' the UNFCCC
executive secretary said.
To mark the tenth anniversary of the
development and implementation of the Rio Conventions, a special
exhibit has been organized at the WSSD in Johannesburg. ”Rio
Conventions: synergy for sustainable development” is
the name of a joint exhibit in the 'Ubuntu Village' at WSSD.
The exhibition is set up by the secretariats
of the conventions on climate change, desertification and
biodiversity.
Staff from each secretariat will be on-hand
to provide information and respond to questions. Presentations
and demonstrations of websites, databases and other information
products will be given.
Of special note are the 'WEHAB Theme
Days' during which special presentations will show linkages
between the work of the conventions, partner organizations
and the WSSD themes. WEHAB stands for water, energy, health,
agriculture and biodiversity.
The UNFCCC executive secretary said at
their meetings June 5 to 14 in Bonn, delegates from 186 countries
had discussed the need for capacity building, technology innovation
and cooperation with the biodiversity and desertification
conventions.
The meetings coincided with the completion
of ten years after the Climate Change Convention was opened
for signature at the Rio Earth Summit. Bonn discussions revealed
that the Eighth Session of Conference of Parties to the Climate
Change Convention (COP8) October 23 to November 1 in New Delhi
would focus on national and international efforts to accelerate
action under the Convention.
These actions will then link to new work
under the Kyoto Protocol agreed five years ago in Japan.
Waller-Hunter expressed satisfaction
that the European Union and Japan had ratified the Kyoto Protocol
at the start of the June meetings. But it is not expected
to enter into force in time for the New Delhi conference.
However, the Bonn meetings prepared a
number of draft decisions for adoption by the COP8 in New
Delhi. For example, they agreed on guidelines for the reporting
and review of national greenhouse gas inventories, a vital
step for ensuring a standardized and more rigorous approach
to tracking long-term emissions trends and determining whether
progress is being made.
The meetings also considered the findings
of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), as
contained in its Third Assessment Report published last year.
Delegates discussed the relevance of these findings to their
work and asked various international research programmes to
provide their views on the IPCC's proposals on how to prioritise
future research.
Other issues included establishing the
procedures for the Executive Board of the Kyoto Protocol's
Clean Development Mechanism and making practical arrangements
for the first session of the Conference of the Parties serving
as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol.
Work programmes were agreed on education,
training and public awareness and for the Expert Group on
Technology Transfer. The Clean Development Mechanism itself
is purported to assist developing countries in achieving sustainable
development. (END/2002)
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