Minister of the Environment Thorbjørn Berntsen

Informal meeting of Environment Ministers

Mangaratiba, Rio de Janeiro, 17 til 19. mars 1996

Mr. Chairman,

Allow me to make a few remarks on our discussion yesterday and highlight some priorities from a Norwegian point of view. But first, I would like to thank you for your hospitality and for organising this meeting. Time is short before the Special Session of the General Assembly next year. We therefore have to make full use of CSD 4 and CSD 5 and we shall have to have some more preparatory work on the political level. That is why we welcome the invitation of the German Minister for another informal Ministerial meeting before CSD5.

The CSD has been mandated by the General Assembly in its resolution from last year to help prepare the Special Session. That is why we don't see any formal difficulties for the CSD to make recommendations directly to the Special Session. We should not downgrade this event and call it a mid-term review. Rather we should fully use the opportunity to make it so interesting and important as to attract the attention of the public and all the other stakeholders but also attract the participation of government leaders on the highest level. This is why we should not only review our successes and failures in implementing Agenda 21, but rather mainly focus on political directions and priorities for the years ahead.

The World Summit in Rio was a break-through for sustainable development, which was the main concept of the Brundtland-report, linking the needs for a better environment to development within a framework of solidarity between all the peoples of this world and present and future generations. Planet Earth was turned into a global village and in order to survive we all have to cooperate . Now time has come to make sustainable development operational, to integrate environment and development on the international and national level, to make decision-makers both in the public and private sector accountable for their activities, to monitor performance on the basis of agreed and comparable indicators, to verify the compliance of commitments made and to agree on necessary incentives and sanctions to discourage free-riders. All these elements could be turned into operation through the adoption of a 5 year work programme for the CSD at the Special Session of the General Assembly. The Programme should focus on actions both on the national and international level and bring the other stakeholders, business, trade unions, the research community, voluntary organisations and youth into the new cooperation in a more responsible and efficient way.

Such a 5 year work programme should build on national long term programmes. In Norway for example, we are now preparing a national programme for the years 1997-2001 based on the overriding objective of sustainable development.

The Rio-documents shall of course not be rewritten, but rather be reconfirmed and serve as a platform for future priorities of the UN. We could already now identify some areas that should be highlighted, that is sustainable production and consumption patterns and the fight against poverty. With regard to the first key area of changing lifestyles, the focus now is on eco-efficiency. This is now promoted by Governments and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and has led to important changes already. Insurance companies and banks are working on sanctioning unsustainable activities through their premium and investment policies. Norwegian and European insurance companies have made a special agreement with UNEP to promote sustainable development. Governments and industry have made agreements to minimise, recycle and treat waste. We shall organise a national conference for branches of industry in the fall to prepare indicators to monitor performance. On the local level municipalities have strengthened their efforts for more sustainable land use, area planning, impact assessment, and waste and sewage treatment. Local citizens groups are working with great engagement for a better neighbourhood.

Procurement Policies were identified by the Oslo Roundtable on consumption last year, as a key instrument for integrating environmental concerns. National and local governments, as well as big companies, are large end users. For example in my country, public procurement amounts to more than 20 billion USD a year. The greening of procurement policies would therefore be a driving force for changing productions and consumption patterns in a more sustainable direction.

My government has set up a special Green Tax Commission, which will report this summer on possible shifts from taxes on labour to taxes on environmental goods. So Mr. Chairman, we have made some progress and changes are being made.

With regard to the fight against poverty, Norway`s development assistance continues to amount to more than 1 % of GNP, and the integration of environment and development will increasingly be highlighted in our development policies. The Norwegian Parliament will discuss these relationships in the near future on the basis of a Government White Paper.

To sum up, Mr. Chairman, we all have to realise that Business as usual is a loosing option. All the stakeholders must redouble their efforts and the Special Session must be made into a wake-up-call for change. The mandate for the CSD must be reconfirmed and the support for UNEP must be strengthened. We can all do better. Thank you.