SUMMARY: On July 23rd, 1992 the Assembly of the Italian Chamber of Deputies approved the concluding resolution of the UN Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro, by a large majority.

The Italian Government undertakes: to plan the necessary action for the ratification of the Conventions undersigned in Rio, to programme and implement the national Plan for the fulfillment of the Declaration of Rio and Agenda 21, to carry out a "Survey on Environmental Conditions and Sustainable Development" as from 1983 as provided for by the obligations assumed in Rio de Janeiro, to execute, by reviewing PEN, previously accepted commitments relative to the CO2 concentration reductions of more than 20 percent below 1990 levels within year 2005, to achieve the target of devoting 0.7% of its GNP to cooperation with developing countries.

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The House,

on the occasion of the debate on the conclusions of the Earth Summit of the United Nations held at Rio de Janeiro last June:

in view of the motions proposed by the political groups during the hearing in the House;

having heard the ministers' replies;

having ascertained a substantially unanimous agreement on the need to do everything possible so that the efforts made during the three years of the Conference's preparation and during the Conference itself by so many men and women of good will representing governments, voluntary citizens organizations, autochthonous communities, and all those who are concerned about the fate of the world;

hereby commits the Government

to taking the necessary steps to ratify the Conventions signed at Rio, that on climate as well as that on biodiversity, proceeding also to making the consequent changes in the internal legislation and preparing the relative plans for implementation by the end of 1993;

to drafting and approving the national plan for the implementation of the Rio Declaration and of Agenda 21, facilitating the participation and involvement of NGOs;

to presenting to Parliament within three months the guide-lines for drawing up, at each parliamentary budget session, starting in 1993, a "Report on the state of the environment and for sustainable growth" in order to implement the commitments undertaken at Rio de Janeiro and reaffirmed in the final Declaration of the summit meeting of the seven most industrialized countries, as approved on 8th July last at Munich. This report, prepared by the minister for the environment and coordinated by the President of the Council of Ministers, shall be aimed in particular at promoting and veryfing the implementation, at both the internal level and within the framework of EC policy, of the objectives set out in "Agenda 21" signed at Rio de Janeiro, shall lay down precise prescriptions referring to the policies of all the ministries concerning the attainment of the stated objectives and shall be presented each year to the Commission for sustainable growth to be set up by the General Assembly of the United Nations as well

as to the international bodies responsible for implementing, expanding and verifying the Agreements concerning the global environment and sustainable growth;

to launching as soon as possible a national research programme on energy and global climate which, as well as developing adequate skills in the country (currently extremely meagre and wholly insufficient) can also act as a practical technical and fact-finding support for defining, on the one hand, a national environmental policy on global issues and, on the other, suitable objectives for sustainable growth, as well as for the implementation of the consequent required operative actions;

to implementing, during the revision of PEN (national energy plan), the commitments undertaken in the resolution passed by the House on 21st March 1990 concerning the reduction of CO2 concentrations to twenty per cent of the 1990 levels by the year 2005; consequently to adopting energy policies that, through the refinancing of the relevant laws and by means of public information campaigns, will encourage energy saving and the diffusion of clean and renewable energy;

to implementing the introduction of fiscal policies concerning energy, for the purpose of limiting the increase in consumption and of locating resources to be used to sustain the take-off of energy-saving and renewable resources technologies; to promoting and agreeing at Community level the adoption of an energy tax in accordance with the proposal advanced by the EC commissioner for the environment in order to contribute to financing the transfer of environmental protection technology to the developing countries;

to making progress, over the next three years, towards achieving the aim of allocating 0.7 percent of GDP to cooperation with developing countries, in a context of gradual rebalancing of public accounts; this progress should be accompanied by a radical revision of current procedures and priorities in a relationship with the beneficiary countries that is respectful of local cultures and aspirations, anchored to the principles of safeguarding the guarantees of peace and democracy, linked a priori to correct evaluations of the environmental impact of the action, and aimed at promoting policies sustainable at the ecological and social, but also employment, levels; such progress shall be scheduled in time in accordance with the parliamentary budget and multiyear economic and financial planning sessions;

to presenting to CICS (interministerial committee on cooperation and development) and Parliament, as soon as possible, the cooperation planning guide-lines, so as to unblock 50 percent of the cooperation funds themselves in accordance with article 3 of the public finances act;

to drawing up, in accordance with the Convention on Biological Diversity, the complete and annotated catalogue of the components of biological diversity of importance for their preservation and sustained use, to implementing the system of protected areas provided for by law no. 394 of 1991, thus promoting the protection of ecosystems and natural habitats, the maintenance of vital populations of various species in their natural environment and the preservation of threatened endemic species, the reintroduction of threatened species into their environment, the protection of the generic heritage also by means of special germ plasm banks; by setting up and running programmes of scientific and technical education for the identification, preservation and sustained use of biodiversity and, more in general, implementing all the other commitments and agreements mentioned in the Convention on biodiversity;

to taking initiatives concerning projects for the replanting, defence and enhancement of the forest heritage and against the cementification of the territory;

to modifying agricultural production, at both national and community level, by funding projects for the improvement and modification of agriculture in order to render it compatible with the environment and ensure the protection of biodiversity. Within this framework, impetus shall be given to the development of biological agriculture;

to taking appropriate action at the international level to ensure that the principles enunciated at Rio are translated into actual commitments, accompanied by certainty of resources and scheduling;

to playing an active role in the UN General Assembly next autumn in the establishment of the ministerial-level commission for sustainable growth, which is intended above all to function as an instrument for monitoring and controlling commitments undertaken at the Rio Summit by all the national and supranational bodies;

to taking action as an EC member so that a strong impetus is given to the development of the undertakings deriving from Agenda 21 and the Conventions adopted at Rio, within the framework of the Plan of Action drawn up by the British government, as current EC chairman, and in accordance with G7 Munich agreements;

to adopt a strong international stance concerning the re-examination of the Declaration of principles on forests aimed at providing an adequate approach to the complex of causes of deforestation;

to contributing to the pilot programme for Brazilian forests by paying the announced five million dollars to the World Bank multilateral fund by the end of 1992 and to defining a basis for a bilateral agreement also in connection with the needs and requirements of the local communities;

to prevailing upon the other countries for the purpose of reforming the national and international patents legislation, also with reference to possible bans on patents concerning living organisms and their behaviour, processes or products;

to taking the necessary action in international economic and commercial forums (IMF, WB, GATT) to remove the negative effects of the international indebtedness of the southern countries (over 1,300 billion dollars) on the natural environment and on the social systems of the developing countries and to change the trade ratios between the North and South of the world, introducing suitable rules to regulate worldwide the competitive mechanism of the world market and encouraging productive improvements in the developing countries;

to acting at the international level to ensure that governments provide the populations with the maximum information and help so that the choice to have children is truly a choice based on love and responsibility in consideration of the conditions of the planet, its resources and compatibility with the survival of its peoples;

to intervene at EC level and at the UNO in order to obtain gradual reductions in the funds allocated to military expenditure and to redirect them to cooperation and development projects in accordance with the criteria laid down in resolution no. 6-00169 approved by the Chamber of Deputies in May 1991;

to undertaking wide-ranging action to inform public opinion and to effectively involve educational institutions in the work of training young people and to spread a culture receptive to the question of the environment, to solidarity, the economical use of resources and reconciliation with all the components of the biosphere.