ENVIRONMENT: U.N. Officials Regret Post-Rio Failures

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

SEOUL, Jun 5 1997 (IPS) - A former Secretary-General of one of the largest U.N. conferences is lamenting the fact that rich nations have failed to live up to their promises to help prevent the ecological destruction of developing nations.

“Developing countries have good reason to be disappointed in the response given by industrialised countries,” says Maurice Strong, Secretary-General of the June 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Strong’s comments precede the Jun. 23-26 Special Session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York to review the successes — and mostly failures — of the Rio summit that was held exactly five years ago.

Attended by more than 150 world leaders, the summit ended with a pledge by rich nations to provide “new and additional resources” to finance a massive global environmental plan of action called ‘Agenda 21’.

But far from meeting their targets, said Strong, many rich countries have, in fact, reduced their official development assistance (ODA) to poorer countries.

“The rich have never felt, or acted, so poor as they do today,” Strong told a group of journalists and U.N. officials at a Jun. 3-5 International Media Conference on Environment and Development here. The United Nations designated South Korea as the host country to celebrate the 25th anniversary of ‘World Environment Day’ June 5.

Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Executive Director of the Nairobi-based U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP), agrees that donor nations have reneged on their Rio promises. “What has happened to the state of the environment five years after Rio is not encouraging,” Dowdeswell told IPS. The global environment, she added, is getting worse on many counts.

“I think funding, transfer of technology, actual implementation of commitments, have all been a disappointment,” said Dowdeswell.

Dowdeswell is also here to attend the conference that coincides with the Jun. 5 World Environment Day. The meeting is hosted by the Korean News Editors’ Association and co-sponsored by UNEP, the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), and the U.N. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

Dowdeswell said that developing nations were “absolutely right” in criticising donors — not only for their failure to transfer financial resources but also for their failure to transfer technology.

Dowdeswell, however, pointed out that there have been some successes. The biodiversity convention is a reality, while local authorities are developing their own environment and development plans of action. There are also ongoing negotiations on a proposed convention on forests, she said.

“There is, I believe, a certain paralysis in the system. And there is also a real need to mobilise resources, including political will for the kind of sustainable development the people had envisioned” she added.

Strong said the international community needed to look for new sources of funding for its global environmental action plan.

“What is required is not totally new funds, but a massive reorientation of current budgets, subsidies, fiscal, tax and economic policies to provide positive incentives for sustainable development, and new innovative approaches to resource transfers,” Strong said.

“Despite the fact that governments are under pressure and cutting ODA, in overall terms, people are richer than ever,” Strong told IPS.

While “we should keep beating the drums for ODA”, he said, the United Nations and the international community should also reach out to think tanks, foundations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and philanthropic individuals for money.

“Stock markets are at record high levels. There is far more money today in the hands of individuals than there has ever been in history. We should make them aware that the United Nations is the best instrument to address the issues of global problems,” he said.

At the Rio summit, western donors, with the notable exception of the United States, reaffirmed their commitment to the U.N. aid target of 0.7 percent of gross national product (GDP) as official aid for development. But only five countries have since met and surpassed that target: Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and the Netherlands.

The United Nations had estimated that the implementation of the Rio plan for environment and development would require extra resources amounting to 125 billion dollars a year.

But the only additional resources generated so far are more than the two billion dollars pledged to the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) that is administered jointly by the World Bank, UNEP, and the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP).