RESOLUTION B3-0930/92

Resolution on the outcome of UNCED

The European Parliament,

-having regard to its resolution of 13 February 1992 on European Community participation in the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED)OJ No. C 67, 16.3.1992, p. 152,

-having regard to its resolution of 15 May 1992 on the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED)Minutes of that sitting, Part II, Item 3,

-having regard to the report published in 1989 by the World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland report)World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future, Oxford University Press, 1987 (The 'Brundtland Report') and to the report presented by the Brandt Commission and the Palme Commission,

whereas it has expressed repeatedly its view that UNCED was a unique opportunity to define and implement policies which take account of the essential interdependence between human life and activity and the condition of the natural environment and the inter-relationship between economic exploitation and environmental degradation,

whereas the active and committed participation of the NGOs and the representatives of the indigenous people in the run-up to UNCED and in the Global Forum parallel conference is to be welcomed and supported, and attention drawn to its conclusions in favour of environmental protection and sustainable development,

whereas sustainable development is "a process of change in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technology and institutional change are made consistent with future as well as present needs"Ibid,

whereas there is a clear and indisputable link between poverty, ill-health, population growth, environmental degradation and inappropriate, unsustainable development,

whereas it was considered essential that UNCED should conclude the June 1992 global conventions on climate change, biodiversity, and the conservation and management of forests,

whereas UNCED would not be considered a success unless it resulted in binding commitments in the form of resource transfers and environmentally sound technology,

whereas topics as important for the environment and development as Third World debt, international trade, demography, nuclear energy, the transfer of waste, the role of women in the development process, etc. were virtually ignored at the Conference,

whereas the failure to reach binding decisions in international economic, trade and financial negotiations has left the most portentous decisions in the hands of institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, GATT or the G7, in which the poorest countries have no say,

whereas the Commission has agreed to submit to Parliament a full report on the UNCED proceedings as soon as possible,

whereas world military spending is estimated at $1000 billion per annum,

Welcomes the adoption by UNCED of the conventions on climate change and biodiversity, Agenda 21 and the Rio Declaration of Environmental Principles but takes the view that the UNCED proved unequal to the task set for it, that of solving the problem of unsustainable development in the North and the South and the global ecological crisis;

Deplores the decision of the United States not to sign the Convention on Biodiversity after helping to water down the text and its refusal to allow the Convention on Climate Change to include specific timetables and targets;

Regrets that the European Community and its Member States were unable, owing to their divisions and their feeble proposals, to substitute their own political leadership during UNCED for that abdicated by the United States;

Declares that it intends to contribute to the work of the 'Sustainable Development Commission and the 'Earth Council' established by UNCED, not least to ensure that a measure of democracy is present in their work; regrets that this commission would be responsible only to the Economic and Social Council, and not directly to the UN General Assembly; hopes that it will be endowed, from the outset, with powers to supervise national policies for implementing the decisions taken at Rio;

Deplores the failure by the Community and UNCED to agree legally binding commitments in the form of specific targets and resource transfers and in particular the failure of the developed nations to contribute 0.7% of their GDP to developing countries from the year 2000; welcomes the fact, however, that certain Member States took such a decision unilaterally and urges them to implement it as swiftly as possible; calls on the other Member States to take the same decision; calls on the Commission, the Council and the Member States to put pressure on all the rich countries to give a similar undertaking;

Calls on the governments of the Member States to give a firm undertaking that they will meet the objective of devoting 0.7% of their GDP to development aid;

Supports the on-going work of the Global Environmental Facility, welcomes the increased transparency of its operation agreed at UNCED, but regrets that no decision was taken to increase significantly the funds available to it;

Resolves that the European Community must make a budgetary contribution to the Global Environment Facility; calls on the Commission to take the necessary initiatives;

Welcomes the Community's decision to set aside ECU 3 bn to finance Agenda 21 over the next five years; calls on the Council to confirm that these are additional resources and on the Commission to make provision for a new heading in the 1993 budget to cover the funding of Agenda 21;

Takes the view that the lack of specific commitments, a timetable and implementing measures makes the Convention on Climatic Change inadequate to curb and prevent the greenhouse effect;

Calls on the Member States to ratify the Convention as speedily as possible as a first step towards combating the greenhouse effect and to put pressure on the other countries to do the same; calls on the Member States to propose an additional protocol laying down a timetable, commitments and specific implementing measures; calls on the Commission, the Council and the Member States to give specific unilateral undertakings which go beyond the Convention and, in that connection, to impose a Community ecotax on CO2 emissions and non-renewable energy sources;

Takes the view that the Convention on Biodiversity, by virtue of certain innovatory provisions contained in it, represents a small step towards the preservation of genetic diversity; regrets the fact, however, that it establishes the sovereignty of states over biological resources; regrets, further, that the Convention has so few teeth, as it does not make certain measures obligatory, nor lay down a binding timetable for their implementation, and offers no guarantees as to the transfer of technological know-how to the developing countries;

Urges the Member States to ratify the Convention as speedily as possible as a first step towards the preservation of biodiversity and to put pressure on the other countries to do the same; calls on the Member States to propose an additional protocol laying down a timetable, commitments and precise implementing measures, along with a list of the sensitive ecosystems to be protected as a matter of priority; takes the view that the Commission proposal COM(88)0496OJ No. C 10, 13.1.1989, p. 3 on the patenting of living organisms must be revised accordingly;

Regrets that no decision was taken in Rio to start negotiations for a convention on tropical rainforests, but notes that such negotiations were not ruled out; calls on the Commission, the Council and the Member States to use their influence in the international community to push for negotiations on a convention on tropical rainforests which will take into account the needs of the developing countries and make provision, accordingly, for financial mechanisms and transfers of technology to offset the economic losses which those countries will suffer; calls on the Commission, the Council and the Member States to work to secure a worldwide moratorium on the import and export of tropical woods and non-sustainable tropical wood products;

Welcomes the decision taken at UNCED to open negotiations for a convention on desertification; regrets that the EC, due to a split within its ranks, was not one of the sponsors of this initiative and found itself merely following the lead of the United States, even though many ACP States were calling for such a convention; urges the Member States to take steps to ensure that such a convention is negotiated as speedily as possible;

Calls on the Member States to reduce their military spending so as to use the human and material resources thus released for development and environmental protection;

Supports the steps taken by the UNDP on 23 April 1992 to reduce military spending and to use the funds thus released to aid developing countries in protecting the environment;

Welcomes the decision of its relevant committees to draft reports on the outcome of UNCED and notes that these reports will pay particular attention to the follow-up to the Conference and to the European Community's role in implementing the decisions reached legally and practically;

Takes the view that the indigenous peoples must be given their proper role in the investigation, preservation and ecologically sustainable management of their natural environments;

Takes the view that the EC must play a much more significant role in the future in ensuring that the vital reforms are in fact implemented, rather than contenting itself with high-profile gestures not followed by actual decisions; salutes the courageous decision by the Environment Commissioner not to travel to Rio to show his disagreement with the consistent backtracking by the Commission in the face of opposition from the European Parliament;

Calls on the Commission, the Council and the Member States to give priority, in international negotiations, to securing the following objectives:

(a)reducing the debt burden on the developing countries by cancelling the debt of the poorest countries;

(b)diversion of defence spending towards the funding of ecologically sustainable development;

(c)introduction of effective demographic policies which respect individual rights and choices; these policies call for the consolidation of women's rights and priority programmes to safeguard women's right to education;

(d)introduction of water supply policies based on the concepts of quality and universal availability;

(e)support for democratization processes;

Calls on the Commission, the Council and the Member States to revise their policies immediately and radically to focus on the following objectives advocated at UNCED:

(a)implementation of a energy-saving transport policy which gives top priority to the railways and inland waterways, in contrast to the Commission proposals for the construction of an additional 12 000 km of motorways;

(b)introduction of ecological farming;

(c)abandonment of all policies which support a rising birthrate;

(d)development of a security system not based on massive stocks of weapons and armed confrontation;

Decides to place in its library the conventions and other agreements reached at UNCED;

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, and the governments participating in UNCED.