Secretary of State Bernt Bull

Statement at CSD IV, high level, 1.-3. may 1996.

Mr. Chairman,

I join other speakers in congratulating you as the new Chairman of the CSD. I would also like to congratulate the Secretariat for its constructive background paper on preparing the 1997 Special Session of the General Assembly.

The Special Session must be a milestone for the implementation of Agenda 21, and a wake-up call for futher change towards a common and more sustainable future. 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. Planet Earth was turned into a global village. In order to survive we all have to cooperate. Key factors must for example be:

• integrate environment and development on the international and national level,
• attack the sources of environmental degradation and poverty,
• make decision-makers in the public and private sector accountable for their activities,
• agree on clear targets and commitments on the basis of common but differentiated responsibility,
• monitor performance on the basis of agreed and comparable indicators, - verify the compliance of commitments made and,
• agree on necessary incentives and sanctions to discourage free-riders.

These elements and others should be made operative through recommandations from the CSD to the Special Session of the General Assembly. We 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.

International cooperation must be based on political will and national action programmes. In Norway for example, we are now preparing a national programme for the years 1998-2001 based on the overriding objective of sustainable development.We are also preparing a White Paper to Parliament on Sustainable Development which will sum up the experiences so far and set priorities for the future.

On the local level, municipalities have strengthened their efforts for more sustainable land use, area planning, impact assessment, and waste and sewage treatment. We therefore welcome the Secretariat's invitation to Governments to report on Local Agenda 21 initatives. In this way we could learn from each other on the basis of best practical examples.

With regard to the key issues for the Special Session, let me so far highlight three main priorities; that is sustainable production and consumption patterns, the fight against poverty and a more equitable distribution of wealth within and between countries and groups.

Mr.Chairman,

As agreed in Rio, developed countries should take the lead in changing unsustainable production and consumption patterns. Some progress have been made, for example: Governments are considering programmes of green tax reform; that is less tax on labour, more on resource use and environmental damage. There are programmes of green public and industrial procurement, and on green accounting and auditing both in the private and public sector. Experiences from cooperation with Eastern Europe on cleaner production programmes and capacity building, could be widened to developing countries.

In order to promote sustainable development, environmental concerns must be integrated in the global trading system, for example trade agreements should be the subject of environmental impact assessments. We also agree that there is a need for flexibility in the use of environmental policy tools, and the possibility in certain cases for using trade mearsures to achieve legitimate environmental policy objectives while safeguarding an open and legally based global trade system.

With regard to the fight against poverty, the developed countries should honour all their commitments from Agenda 21, including the transfer of financial resources and technology cooperation.

In the years following Rio, the international community has made great strides in establishing legal frameworks for the protection of the environment and sustainable development, including the UN Agreement on Stradding Fish Stocks and Migrating Fish Stocks. I can inform you that Norway may ratify the Agreement already by the summer and we urge other countries to follow suit.

Like Canada and other delegations I would also express deep concern for the ecological development in the Arctic, and we look forward to an intensified cooperation in the forthcoming Actic Council.

Mr. Chairman,

The CSD has a wide mandate and an importent catalytic role to promote sustainable development. We agree that the CSD should continue to be strengthened as the political forum for consensus building on issues related to the implementation of Agenda 21 and the Environment Conventions. UNEP's role should also be strengthened as environment concerns have an increasing place in decisions taken within the UN-system. But the need for institutional effectiveness should be combined with more adequate financing and a streamlining of the work programme.