Constructive start to Johannesburg summit
Ministry for Foreign Affairs Ministry for the Environment
The World Summit on Sustainable Development opened officially today in Johannesburg, South Africa. The negotiations being held during the two-week conference aim to prepare an action programme and schedule furthering sustainable development and comprising practical measures. Heads of state and government will also adopt a declaration on global and local targets for the coming years.
Environment Minister Jouni Backman, representing Finland at the opening of the World Summit, said that the negotiations had begun constructively. He said that a positive example of this was the unanimity reached on providing additional funding for the Global Environment Facility so that it can finance new areas of activity, on issues such as the control of dangerous chemicals and soil impoverishment, especially desertification. Backman pointed out, however, that the most difficult issues that remain unresolved relate to funding, trade barriers and globalisation.
The aim at Johannesburg is to bolster and speed up the implementation of the programme of the World Trade Organisation agreed at Doha in November 2001 and the commitments contained in the final document of the UN conference on development financing agreed at Monterrey in March. In addition, attention has to be paid to controlling globalisation so that its benefits are shared by and within countries fairly while at the same time reducing harmful environmental impacts. Ministers and officials are supposed to resolve areas of disagreement by the time the heads of state arrive at the World Summit next week.
President Tarja Halonen is the leader of the Finnish delegation to the World Summit. Mr Backman is the deputy head of delegation together with the Minister for Development Cooperation Suvi-Anne Siimes and the Foreign Trade Minister Jari Vilén. The heads of the civil servants delegation are Ambassador Taisto Huimasalo from the Foreign Ministry and the head of international affairs at the Ministry of the Environment Aira Kalela.
Over the weekend some 5,000 official delegates arrived in Johannesburg for the World Summit, as well as 2,500 members of the press and over 3,000 NGO representatives and other actors. By next week about 70,000 participants from around the world are expected at the World Summit and its hundreds of parallel events. In addition to government representatives from UN member states, there will be broad participation in the Summit by parliamentarians, members of local governments, indigenous peoples, NGOs, scientists and representatives of business and industry. There are 45 members of the official Finnish delegation, and as many representatives of local authorities, economic life, NGOs and other bodies contributing to its work as experts.
On of the main aims of the Johannesburg programme is to reduce poverty. In practice this means decisively improving the supply of clean drinking water, sufficient food and energy and adequate housing. It must also be able to reduce the over consumption of natural resources to make it better correspond to what nature can endure.
At the initiative of Finland, a goal of the EU is to change production and consumption patterns in the long term. The deleterious environmental impact of economic growth has to be capable of being reduced and growth has to be disconnected from the increased use of natural resources by using production methods that consume less energy and raw materials.
Finland wants to see an effective follow-up to the Johannesburg action plan. It is important to specify responsibility for carrying out the action plan and the indicators for its implementation.
The other goals of the negotiations that Finland views as especially important are those aimed at stopping the decrease of natural resources by 2015 and the diminishing of biodiversity by 2010.
Energy issues are also an important issue at the negotiations. One challenge is to safeguard the availability of energy for the poor and find ways to promote the sustainable production and consumption of energy. Here the EU is advocating an increase in the share of renewable energy use worldwide of 15 percent by 2010.
The World Summit agenda also includes the issue of strengthening the management of sustainable development at all levels, both nationally and globally.
Daily news about the activities and work of the Finnish delegation to the Johannesburg Summit is available on the Foreign Ministry’s homepage formin.finland.fi/Johannesburg and the webside of the Finnish UN Association www.ykliitto.fi/kutsu/
For further information contact:
Ambassador Taisto Huimasalo, Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Mobile phone 040 759 8816
Head of International Affairs Aira Kalela, Ministry of Environment
Mobile phone 040 506 1175
Press arrangements in Johannesburg
Head of unit Erja Tikka, Ministry for Foreign Affairs,
Mobile phone 040 532 9764
Chief Administrator Satu Reijonen, Ministry of Environment
Mobile phone 050 3715 476
The negotiations can be followed in real time at the UN site(Link to another website.)
Earth Negotiations Bulletin reports summit events daily(Link to another website.)