05.06.02

Plenary discussion on the document of implementation, WSSD Prep.Com IV, Bali, 5 June 2002

Statement by the Norwegian Minister of the Environment, Børge Brende

We are here to prepare for the Johannesburg summit, 10 years after Rio.

In Rio we discussed environment and development. In Johannesburg the issue will be environment for development.

Protection of our environment can no longer be regarded a luxury. Environmental protection is a requirement for achieving prosperity that will not only last our own lifetime, but also benefit our children and grandchildren. Poor people and poor countries, their health and their economies, are by far the most vulnerable to climate change and resource degradation.

The decade after Rio has been the decade of environmental treaties. Johannesburg should be the summit for nations committing to implement these treaties within clear time frames.

I hope that this meeting will not be about renegotiating what we have already achieved. Why should we leave Bali with a lesser commitment to environment for development than we had before we met at Bali?

1) Fighting climate change

In Marrakech we agreed on fighting climate change, because we know that stronger, legally binding global agreements will be necessary in the longer term. Why should we not now urge the parties that agreed to the Kyoto protocol, also to ratify it?

2) The precautionary principle

In Rio we agreed on the precautionary principle. Why should we go back on it here?

3) Fresh water and energy

The UN Millennium Declaration aims to halve the number of people living in absolute poverty by 2015. Why should we not act on it, and make a plan for how we will do it! We have set clear goals for providing safe drinking water and access to sustainable energy. Why are we reluctant to adding improved sanitation to these goals? Why does the text in the implementation document only look back on what we have already agreed? Why doesn’t the text look forward to how we are going to achieve it?

4) Biodiversity
We have previously committed ourselves, by 2010, to halt biodiversity loss, which threatens the basis for food and medicine, for sustainable development and the basis for prosperity for all. Now is the time to take concrete initiatives and develop active partnerships to achieve this goal.

5) Financing for development
In Monterrey we made commitments to increase development assistance. Why should we not build on the spirit of Monterrey through monitoring ODA and follow up with new and additional resources to mobilize national action?

6) Good governance

In Rio we underlined the importance of participation of civil society as well as public access to information. Why do we disagree now? Openness and transparency – in short, democracy – is a precondition for making globalisation a positive force for all.

Each country is responsible for its own sustainable development, through sound economic policies and solid democratic institutions responsive to the needs of the people and the needs of future generations. However, good governance must be paralleled by an international will to support developing countries in their struggle against poverty and environmental degradation.

The UN Secretary General has urged us to make concrete achievements. I think we should deliver, and deliver here in Bali!

We should make a plan so clear and binding, that words are transformed into action.

Norway is happy to negotiate and to make compromises. But we are not satisfied only to reconfirm or renegotiate what we have already achieved.

Through a couple of weeks an outstanding team of officials have given us a lot of alternatives, in a lot of brackets – maybe too many alternatives. Now the time has come to make some brave decisions.