International Environmental Governance

STATEMENT BY AMBASSADOR MILOS ALCALAY, PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF VENEZUELA TO THE UNITED NATIONS AND CHAIRMAN OF THE GROUP OF 77, AT THE OPEN-ENDED INTERGOVERNMENTAL GROUP OF MINISTERS OR THEIR REPRESENTATIVES ON INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE

New York, 25 January 2002

Mr. President,
Honourable Ministers,
Distinguished delegates,
Ladies and gentlemen,

At the outset, allow me, Mr. President, to express to you and to the members of the Bureau of the Governing Council of UNEP the appreciation of the Group of 77 and China for convening this meeting in New York. This comes as a response to a request of ours and we are deeply grateful for the efforts that were made by you personally and by UNEP to make this gathering possible.

Let me also reiterate, on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, our sincere gratitude and appreciation to Dr. Klaus Töpfer and UNEP for all the work in the preparation and presentation of documents not only for this informal meeting but also for the whole process of International Environmental Governance. The efforts of UNEP’s staff are highly appreciated by the members of the Group I have the honour to preside.

Mr. President,

The IEG process has been a long one, but very fruitful for all of us who have the honour to take part of it. We are now close to the end of this road called IEG, but our path is not over and will continue with a different name, the Preparatory Committee of the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Our travel will go on towards the achievement of our goal, which is the attainment of sustainable development, including through improved governance. You may rest assured that the Group of 77 and China is very much aware of the importance of UNEP in the achievement of this final objective as the organ within the United Nations system that carries the mandate of dealing with environmental matters.

In this road we have been fortunate enough to count with the support of representatives of developing countries not only in New York but also in Nairobi, and I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank the Nairobi Chapter of G-77, represented in this meeting by Ambassador Tupuk Sutrisno of Indonesia and Ambassador Michael Koech of Kenya, for their contributions and thoughts, which have been fundamental for the success of our internal discussions here in New York.

It is also with pleasure that the Group acknowledges that the next meeting on IEG will take place at Cartagena, Colombia. Minister Juan Mayr, former President of the Commission on Sustainable Development, is amongst us today in New York and, I understand, will brief us on the ongoing preparations for the event, as well as for the Special Session of the Governing Council of UNEP. We are confident, Minister Mayr, that your well known ability as negotiator, the beauty of Cartagena and the hospitality of the Colombian people will assure the success of the event.

Mr. President,

We would like to thank the Secretariat for the document UNEP/IGM/5/2, object of our deliberations today. The document tried to incorporate some of the views presented by the Group of 77 and China in the Montreal meeting, for which we are very grateful. We believe, though, that some of our concerns are still not reflected and we hope that the documents to be prepared for Cartagena will reflect the points of view of the Group in a more holistic manner.

Due to the fact that the document has just been made available to us not very long ago, the Group of 77 and China will not be in a position at this time to discuss it at length. But we do have a number of preliminary comments of a more general nature and also we would like to reiterate, at this opportunity, some of the issues that are important for the developing countries:

- We believe that Resolution 53/242 is the framework of any discussion on IEG, not just one element; in this sense, we agree that UNEP should be strengthened within its existing mandate and that we should not add to it;

- We reiterate that the Global Ministerial Environmental Forum is a Special Session of the Governing Council of UNEP and not an institution by itself; in this sense, may I stress that our belief is based on the context of Resolution 53/242, as well as on a legal opinion issued by the Office of the Legal Adviser of the UN; therefore, we cannot accept the suggestion that the GMEF should have an open membership, because the GC has a limited one;

- We also cannot strengthen the GMEF in detriment of the roles of the Commission on Sustainable Development, the ECOSOC and the General Assembly;

- Concerning the EMG, we feel that its terms of reference should be more clear and that it definitely cannot select by its own decision issues to be suggested to the GMEF; we need clear modalities and principles for the composition of the EMG and, due to the fact that it has barely been created, we do not believe that we should redefine its mandate, as it has been suggested;

- Norway’s proposal for an intergovernmental strategic plan for implementation support is interesting, but the details of such a plan should still be discussed;

- As for the creation of a Panel on Global Environmental Change, the Group has reservations on the matter;

- Concerning financial issues, G-77 shares the view that UNEP should be ensured adequate, predictable and stable funding; this objective should be attained fully within the framework of the Principles of the Rio Declaration and should not impose further burden on developing countries; we believe that a system of multi-year voluntary pledges may be worth considering;

- Finally, one cannot stress enough that any discussion on enhancing complementarities and coordination among MEAs should always take into account the autonomous decision making power of the various Conferences of the Parties.

The Group of 77 and China looks forward to continue the substantive discussions on IEG in Cartagena.

Thank you very much.