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The award of the 2001 Nobel Prize for Peace to the Secretary General
of the United Nations and to the family of organizations that he leads,
highlights the renewed interest shown in systems of international and
regional governance. To begin with, much of this interest is expressed
at and around international activities, including the WSSD, meetings of
the G7/G8 and the negotiations of the WTO and multilateral environmental
agreements. Protests and demonstrations, coupled with less adversarial
side events and more open consultations involving officials, NGOs and
the broader public, help to galvanize renewed commitment to action by
formal institutions.
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| 'A common characteristic of these initiatives is a highly structured
approach, complete with the establishment of formal institutions and
the setting of very specific targets.' |
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This commitment is translated into initiatives to better understand and
deal with issues of current concern. A common characteristic of these
initiatives is a highly structured approach, complete with the establishment
of formal institutions and the setting of very specific targets. Efforts
to improve knowledge of the issues build upon existing activities, including
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
and Global International Water Assessment. To these are added an Arctic
Climate Impact Assessment and a global assessment of the nitrogen cycle.
Target-setting draws on the efforts of international conferences in the
1990s. These were outlined in A Better World for All (IMF and others
2000). Following this precedent, global environmental and social priorities
are expressed in terms of measures that target basic needs such as reducing
extreme poverty, cutting infant and child mortality, improving reproductive
health, promoting gender equity, upgrading environmental conditions and
achieving universal primary education. Quantifiable indicators are agreed
to help track progress towards each of these goals.
The environmental targets fall into two broad categories. Climate stabilization,
improving ecoefficiency and reducing toxic wastes require a focus on industrial
activities and the demands of modern lifestyles. Halting deforestation
and land degradation, maintaining biodiversity, sustaining fisheries and
improving access to clean water and sanitation, require issues of poverty
and growing populations to be addressed as well. The targets agreed for
developing countries reflect a general acceptance that the process of
development and industrialization must continue in these regions. Thus,
although per capita materials use and releases of pollutants will grow,
they should not exceed the levels recorded in the OECD regions and will
gradually converge to similar values.
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