INTERVENTION OF THE HOLY SEE
AT THE SECOND COMMITTEE OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
OF THE UNITED NATIONS ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
AT THE SECOND COMMITTEE OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
OF THE UNITED NATIONS ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
STATEMENT OF H.E. MONS. CELESTINO MIGLIORE
New York
Wednesday, 25 October 2006
Wednesday, 25 October 2006
If we wish to make sustainable development a rooted, long-term
reality, we must create a truly sustainable economy.
Even in the context of its fast transition and mutation, our
economy continues to rest basically upon its relation to nature. Its
indispensable substratum is soil, water and climate; and it is becoming rapidly
ever clearer that if these, the world’s life support systems, are spoiled or
destroyed irreparably, there will be no viable economy for any of us. Therefore,
rather than being external or marginal to the economy, environmental concerns
have to be understood by policy makers as the basis upon which all economic –
and even human - activity rests.
This is why the fulfillment of commitments to the 1992 Earth
Summit’s economic, environmental and social pillars of sustainable development
are the very minimum response required, here and now, by states and all relevant
environmental actors. The environmental consequences of our economic activity
are now among the world’s highest priorities.
The environmental question is not only an important ethical and
scientific problem, but a political and economic problem too, as well as a bone
of contention in the globalization process in general. It means not just
integrating sustainable development into programmes for poverty reduction and
development, but also reflecting the preoccupations and environmental problems
in security strategies, and in developmental and humanitarian questions at the
national, regional and international levels. In a word, the world needs an
ecological conversion so as to examine critically current models of thought, as
well as those of production and consumption.
My delegation therefore welcomes the progress mentioned on the
implementation of Agenda 21, the Programmes for the Further Implementation of
Agenda 21 and the outcomes of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, in
the Secretary-General’s report now before the Committee. Greater emphasis on
renewable energy, fuels and clean technologies and the mainstreaming of national
sustainable development strategies into policy-making appears to be gaining
momentum, although all actors, starting with states, must do much more to stop
and reverse current trends in consumption and pollution.
Both the G8 summits in 2005 and 2006 devoted much attention to
energy for sustainable development and to climate change as well as to
industrial development and atmospheric pollution. These phenomena have an
obvious environmental impact, with wide repercussions on national and
international security, as well as on the capacity of the international
community to achieve the MDGs. The international community should continue to
deepen its understanding of the links between peace and human development, above
all in the poorest sectors which have less capacity to adapt.
As for the implementation of the various UN environmental
conventions, my delegation also welcomes the momentum gained since the Marrakesh
Accords were adopted, thus making the Kyoto Protocol fully operational. It is
the Holy See’s hope that opportunities like these may favour the application of
an energy strategy which is both global and shared in the long term, capable of
satisfying short and long term global energy needs, protect human health and the
environment, and establish precise commitments that will effectively confront
the problem of climate change.
In the meantime, if fossil fuels are going to be with us for
"the foreseeable future" and if states are going to rely on "hybrid options in
energy mix", as the Secretary-General suggests, then serious public investment
in clean technology must accompany this pragmatism as an urgent part of national
and international strategies to diminish as fast as possible the impact of air
and sea transport pollution and those sectors’ continued use of outdated
technology. Progress is slowly being made in clean technologies in other fields,
including even that of car transport: but the time is now ripe for major
investment in cleaner air and sea transport technologies before the ecological
balance is tipped by culpable neglect.
Regarding water, the second UN World Water Development Report
stated that the principal problem which impedes the fulfillment of water
requirements is not the lack of sufficient water for human needs but that of the
governance of water resources highlighting problems of management,
infrastructure, technology, and finances. Governance of water resources must be
based on the implementation of the principle of responsibility shared at the
international level, with particular attention to the principle of subsidiarity,
which requires the participation of local communities in the decision-making
process.
On a related subject, the UN designated 2006 as the
International Year of Deserts and Desertification, undoubtedly one of the most
alarming processes of environmental degradation, with a strong negative impact
not only on the environment but also in economic and social fields.
Desertification and drought now affect more than one in six of the world’s
population. The international community must take concrete actions to reverse
this alarming phenomenon through internationally coordinated responses.
Finally, the rural sector, upon which three quarters of the
world’s hungry people depend, is being ever more degraded. Findings at the
International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development at Porto
Alegre earlier this year rightly underlined the importance of the role of
agrarian reform and rural development in combating hunger and poverty, in
promoting sustainable development and food safety, in guaranteeing the promotion
of human rights, and in achieving the MDGs. Policy makers cannot continue to
treat the rural world as second class.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
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