QUEBEC SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS: US GOVERNMENT INFORMAL
CONSULTATION WITH CIVIL SOCIETY ON POTENTIAL ENVIRONMENTAL
INITIATIVES
On February 14th USAID, EPA, and the
State Department co-hosted an informal consultation in Washington,
D.C. with civil society representatives to obtain their ideas on
environmental initiatives to be considered at the Quebec Summit of
the Americas. Participants were provided with an update of the
status, timeline, and major upcoming events related to the Summit by
the State Department and Canadian representatives. Prior to the
meeting participants had received a list of environmental topic
areas/initiatives proposed by a various governments and NGOs for
possible consideration at the Quebec Summit. This list included:
- Multilateral Environmental Agreements;
- climate change;
- water and sanitation;
- integrated water resources management;
- trade and environment;
- air pollution;
- industrial clean production/pollution prevention;
- biodiversity conservation;
- transboundary ecosystem conservation;
- forest management;
- sustainable energy;
- environmentally sound mining;
- environmental security;
- disaster mitigation;
- corporate responsibility
Civil society participants at the February 14th
informal consultation preferred to organize their input around four
topics within which they identified specific initiatives. These
topics were:
- Strengthen the Institutional Basis for Sustainable Development
- Trade and Environment
- Biodiversity and Ecosystem Conservation
- Environmental Security
Views provided below are those of civil society participants.
Strengthen the Institutional Basis for
Sustainable Development
1. Strengthen laws, regulations and compliance assurance
- training to support environmental compliance officials
- through relevant cooperative mechanisms such as the
Inter-American Forum on Environmental Law (FIDA) share
information on what has and has not worked (successes and
failures, and innovations)
2. Improve and create transparency and monitoring mechanisms to support
sustainable development
- strengthen right-to-know laws
- build in civil society monitoring mechanisms into national
laws and existing regional and international commitments
(Inter-American Strategy for Public Participation in Sustainable
Development Decision Making - ISP, Summit Action Plans, etc.)
- strengthen/create government monitoring and information
disclosure. For example, pollution release and transfer
registries (PRTRs)
3. Strengthen corporate responsibility mechanisms
- Regional review of progress in the implementation of corporate
reporting and corporate responsibility initiatives
- Global Reporting Initiative
- OECD's Multinational corporation environmental guidelines
- Eco-labeling standards (organic agriculture, sustainable
forestry)
b. Joint/collaborative work between the private
sector and civil society in the design of
third
party and independent
monitoring of corporate performance
Trade and Environment
* Strong labor and environment component in trade
agreements
1. Transparency
- making negotiation texts publicly available
- public participation and feedback
- Establish methodology for environmental review of trade
agreements and follow-up
- Incorporation of precautionary approach or principle
- Priority to Multilateral Environmental Agreements
- Countries are free to distinguish products based on production
methods
- No investor-state disputes
- Equivalent enforcement mechanisms for environmental provisions
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Conservation
Bearing in mind the immense importance of natural
biological resources to prosperity in the hemisphere – for their
ability to maintain and recharge natural systems, for clean water,
for carbon sequestration, for sustainable harvest of food, forest
and marine products, for tourism, for pharmaceutical research, and
for the enjoyment of the people – (the assembled governments)
resolve to work individually and with partners, from within and from
outside the hemisphere, to give renewed attention and effort to the
sustainable management of such natural biological resources,
beginning with effective protection of key representative habitats
in the ecoregions of the Americas, especially parks and nature
preserves. Given also that nature does not follow political
boundaries, (the assembled governments) pledge to work cooperatively
with neighboring countries on transboundary issues where these are
relevant to the sustainable management of ecosystems and the
maintenance of ecological processes.
- Endorse further action under the Treaty to Combat
Desertification*
- Pledge to create an inter-institutional and inter-sectoral
dialogue informed by expert scientific advice, to better
define hemispheric conservation goals and identify
opportunities for action, especially in a transboundary
context.
- Pledge to encourage access to biodiversity information,
building on the Inter-American Biodiversity Information
Network (IABIN) initiative at the Bolivia Summit and other
major international initiatives.
Environmental Security**
Address Environmental Security challenges –
including growing concern over resource claims, depletion and
degradation that can imperil the health and well being of citizens,
impede or disrupt economic prosperity, and threaten national and
regional security -- as a regional and national priority by:
1) Convening relevant governmental and
non-governmental experts to:
- identify national environmental security priorities;
- establish national environmental security plans by 2003;
- strengthening national frameworks and institutions
consistent with those national environmental security
action plans.
- Monitoring and reporting Action Plan implementation to
OAS CIDI/CIDS
- Devoting necessary human and financial resources to
action plan implementation
2) Establish a high-level policy dialogue
among the environment, defense and finance communities to
explore the linkage between environment and development concerns
and the security of citizens and states in the Americas, with a
view to supporting the development and implementation of
national environmental security action plans, including through
relevant regional institutions such as: OAS Unit for Sustainable
Development and Environment, Inter-American Development Bank,
Inter-American Water Resources Network, Pan-American Health
Organization, Inter-American Forum on Environmental Law, World
Bank.
* The Convention to Combat Desertification (http://www.unccd.int/main.php)
offers new hope in the struggle against the degradation of the
land of semi arid lands. OAS member States and their Civil
Society lead the way in this. As of today, 172 countries have
ratified the Convention, including all the OAS members. Though
better known for rain forests, Latin America and the Caribbean
are actually about one-quarter desert and dry lands. The deserts
of Latin America's Pacific coast stretch from southern Ecuador
along the entire Peruvian shoreline and well into northern
Chile. Further inland the high, dry plains of the Andean
Mountains cover large areas of Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and
Argentina. A large part of Northeast Brazil is arid with
recurrent severe droughts and so are regions of Mexico, the
first country to ratify the Convention. The Caribbean states of
the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Haiti and Jamaica, among others,
also contain arid zones; erosion is noticeably intensifying in
many East Caribbean islands.
** This initiative is integrally linked with
the initiative for Disaster Mitigation and Preparedness
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