Archives

by B M S Batagoda, Director, Environmental Economics and Global Affairs Division, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources

Poverty eradication

The PI includes time bound target for poverty eradication. Therefore, it requires that the concerted and concrete measures are required at all level to halve by 2015, the proportion of the world's people whose income is less than $1 a day; proportion of people who suffer from hunger, the proportion people without access to safe drinking water; and proportion of people who have access to basic sanitation. As a funding mechanism for the poverty eradication efforts the Summit established a world solidarity fund to eradicate poverty for which funding will come through voluntary contributions.

The Summit requested all countries to develop national programs to provide people living in poverty with productive resources, public services and institutions, land, water, employment opportunities, credit, education and health. The Summit recommend following measures in address poverty issues:

- Promote women's equal access to decision-making

- Ensure children boys and girls have equal access to all levels of education

- Provide access to agricultural resources to women and indigenous people

- Build infrastructure, transportation, markets, technology information, credit for rural poor

- Increase food availability and affordability

- Mitigate desertification, drought and floods

- Take joint actions to improve access to reliable and affordable energy services

- Improve access to modern biomass technologies and fuel wood sources

- Significantly improve lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers as proposed in the "Cities without Slums" initiative

The Summit adopted following steps to strength contribution of industrial development to the economic development, particularly in developing countries:

- provide assistance and mobilize resources for industrial development

- provide assistance to increase income-generating employment opportunities

- promote micro, small and medium-sized industries

- provide financial and technology assistance for small-scale mining ventures

- provide support for developing countries to low cost technologies to conserve fuel for cooking and water heating

Changing unsustainable consumption and production

Among other things the Summit adopted followings to address the issues related to unsustainable consumption and production patterns;

- Fundamental changes in production and consumption is indispensable

- All the countries should promote sustainable consumption but the developed countries taking the lead

- Develop a 10-year framework to shift towards sustainable consumption and production

- Apply polluter pay principle

- Science based approach and life-cycle analysis

- Sound consumer information

- Support and establish cleaner production programs

Cleaner production

The Summit recognizes the importance of cleaner production initiatives to achieve global sustainable development goals. Some of the measures adopted at the Summit includes:

- Provide incentives (state-financed loans, venture capital, technical assistance and training) for investment in cleaner production

- Promote the use of economic instruments and internalize environmental cost

- Promote public procurement policies to encourage diffusion of environmentally sound technologies

Energy

The Summit was able to adopt time bound targets to promote clean and renewable energy. It was decided to:

- Phase out subsidies that inhabit sustainable development based on specific condition of the country

- Overcome market barriers and improve accessibility to energy market

- Achieve a target of significant increase in the share of renewable energy in the total global energy supply

Transport

Sustainable transport receives significant attention at the Summit. The Summit adopted following measures to implement sustainable transport strategy to in order to achieve global sustainable development:

- improve affordability, efficiency and convenience in the transport system

- improve urban air quality and health

- Reduce greenhouse gas emission

- Develop energy efficient multi-modal transportation system

- Provide better transport system for rural areas

- Provide financial and technical assistance to developing countries to develop affordable and efficient transport system

Waste management

Among the major important decisions adopted at the Summit on waste management, two major decisions are:

- All should prevent minimize waste and maximize reuse and recycling

- Assistance should be given to develop infrastructure for waste management

Management of chemicals

The Summit was able to adopt time bound target for the management of chemicals. Some of the target set at the Summit are:

- By 2020, chemicals throughout the life-cycle should be used and produced to minimize effect on human health and environment

- Promote that Prior Informed Convention (PIC) on chemicals to be enforced by 2003

- Promote enforcement of Stockholm Convention on POP by 2004

- Develop a strategic approach to chemical management by 2005

- Promote globally harmonized chemical classification and labelling system, fully operational by 2008

- Take measures to prevent illegal trafficking of hazardous chemicals

Managing the natural resource base

Some of the measures adopted at the Summit on the managing natural resources base are

- Managing natural resource base in essential

- Mobilize international and domestic funds to water management focusing on water supply to poor particularly women

- Provide additional financial resource to implement chapter 18 of agenda 21

- Reduce water pollution and develop domestic waste treatment systems

- Develop integrated water resources management and water efficiency plan by 2005

- Develop and implement national strategy on integrated river basin, watershed and ground water management

- Employ policy instrument such as cost recovery of water service, market and information based tools

- Financial support to adopt non-conventional water resources

- Designate the years 2003 as the International Year of freshwater

Oceans and coastal resources

Following targets were set at the summit on the oceans and coastal resources:

- Oceans, seas, islands, coastal areas are critical for global food security

- Encourage the application of ecosystem approach by 2010

- Maintain or restore stock to level that can produce the maximum sustainable yield by 2015

- Develop international plan of action for the management of fishing capacity by 2005

- Develop international plan of action to prevent, deter, and eliminate illegal unreported and unregulated fishing by 2004

- Implement effective monitoring and enforcement mechanism

- Eliminate subsidies that contribute to illegal and unregulated fishing

- Support for small scale aquaculture

- Implementation of GPA - land based coastal pollution activities during 2002 - 2006 on municipal waste water, the physical alteration and destruction of habitat and nutrient

- Establish by 2004 a regular State of Environment (SOE) assessment on marine environment by the UN Disaster management

The Summit requested countries to provide funds or disaster reduction activities including following measures:

- Provide funds to the Trust Fund on International Strategy for Disaster Reduction

- Build capacity to assess vulnerabilities

- Reduce risk of flood and drought

- Improve techniques and methodologies to assess climate impacts vulnerability

- Encourage use of indigenous knowledge to mitigate impacts

- Promote community based disaster management planning

- Develop early warning system for the El Nino and La Nina

Globalisation

The Summit recognized that the globalization offers opportunities and challenges opportunities for sustainable development. It provide new opportunities to trade, investment and capital flow. It also facilitate advancing the technologies and development and improvement of living standards of people.

The challenges of globalisation recognised to by the Summit include serious financial crises, insecurity, poverty, exclusion and inequality within and among societies. In order to face these challenges the Summit adopted that the globalization should be fully inclusive and equitable and should:

- Promote open, equitable, rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory multilateral trading and financial system

- Support Doha Declaration and Monterrey Consensus

- Build capacity of developing countries to participate trade negotiations

Health

Health issues also received a significant attention at the Summit. The Summit raised following measures to address health issues

- Urgent need to address the causes of ill health and impact on development

- Promote affordable equitable efficient health care system

- Provide findings for "Health for all Strategy"

- Enhance health education to achieve health literacy on a global basis by 2010

- Develop programs to reduce by 2015, mortality rate for infants and children under 5 by two third and maternal mortality rate by three quarter of current rate in 2000.

- Launch international capacity building initiatives

- Commitment to provide sufficient resources to the Global Funds to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

- Reduce respiratory diseases from air pollution by phasing out lead in gasoline, introduce clean fuel, providing rural communities affordable energy to reduce traditional fuel sources for cooking and heating to protect women and children

Environmentally sound technology

Environmentally sound technologies can make significant contribution to global sustainable development. The Summit adopted following measures:

- Promote and finance the environmentally sound technology

- Create enabling environment - legal and policy

- Improve relation with universities, governments and private sector

- Provide assistance to assess the technology needs

- Support publicly funded research

Education

The Summit set time bound targets on education recognizing the important role that the education can play in the sustainable development endeavours. Following targets were set on the education at the Summit.

- Meet the Millennium Declaration of achieving universal primary education

- Full course of primary education to all children boys and girls by 2015

- Provide funds for education, research and public awareness

- Allocate funds for Dakar Framework for Action on Education for all

- Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education by 2005, and all level by 2015 Integrate sustainable development into education programs

- Exchange programs for researchers

- Adopt a decade of education by 2005

Conclusions and Recommendations

The analysis found that the WSSD decision cover a wide range of issues relevant to sustainable development in developing countries, which include poverty eradication, consumption and production patterns, protecting and managing the natural resources, biodiversity, health, drinking water supply, sanitation, energy, globalization and trade issues, agriculture, good governance, institutional framework and financial issues. Time bound programs on poverty eradication, supply of water and sanitation can have positive impacts on regional development.

The summit pledged its support to the outcome of international conference on financing for development held in Monterrey, the Doha declaration and Millennium development goals. Important decisions relevant regional development include halving the proportion of the world's people whose income is less than $1 a day, proportion of people who suffer hunger, proportion of people who are without access to safe drinking water and sanitation by 2015; phasing out all forms of export subsidies of agricultural products, strengthening the major groups; partners; ecosystem approach to environmental problems including the management of chemical; and trade and environment issues.

The summit has failed to agree on the renewable energy targets, phasing out of subsidies on fossil fuel energy, clear time bound action plan with budgets, strong financial commitments of developed countries, protect developing countries from negative impacts of globalization. Since the summit has failed to protect developing countries from negative impacts of globalization, it will have significant impact on the development in developing countries.

Particularly, tariff relief for export from LDCs by developed countries will have serious repercussions for the exporters of the middle-income developing countries like Sri Lanka.

Phasing out of agricultural subsidies can have negative impacts on traditional farmers since globalized market liberalisation does not always lead to equitable, just or environmentally sustainable development. Therefore some sort of protection is needed until developing countries build their capacity to meet with the global competition.

The unilateral decisions to provide tariff relief for export from LDCs by developed countries, which the Summit encourage will have serious repercussions for the exporters of the middle-income developing countries like Sri Lanka. Most of the export industries in developing countries that have low profit margin will not be able to compete with exporters of LDCs who enjoy export tariff benefits.

Based on the review, it is suggested that regional development in the country can benefit from taking early actions to develop a country-owned poverty reduction strategy to enjoy the positive outcome of poverty eradication targets and the world solidarity fund. Threats to the developing country economies can be avoided by improving product quality and building good trade names for the products that will have to compete with countries that enjoy export tariff benefits from developed countries.

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