22 December 1998
ORIGINAL: ENGLISH
EP Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme UNITED NATIONS Twentieth session
Nairobi,
1-5 February 1999
Item 9 of the
provisional agenda*
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For
reasons of economy, this document is printed in a limited number. Delegates are kindly requested to bring
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PROGRAMME, THE ENVIRONMENT FUND AND ADMINISTRATIVE AND
OTHER BUDGETARY MATTERS
Promoting interlinkages
among global
environmental issues and
human needs
Report of the
Executive Director
Summary
In adopting the Nairobi Declaration on the
Role and Mandate of the United Nations Environment Programme, the Governing
Council at its nineteenth session stated that one of the core elements of the
focused mandate of UNEP should be "to analyse the state of the global
environment and assess global and regional environmental trends, provide policy
advice, early warning information on environmental threats, and to catalyse and
promote international cooperation and action, based on the best scientific and
technical capabilities available".
Furthermore, the Nairobi Declaration calls on UNEP "to promote
greater awareness and facilitate effective cooperation among all sectors of
society and actors involved in the implementation of the international
environmental agenda, and to serve as an effective link between the scientific
community and policy makers at the national and international levels".
In line with the Nairobi Declaration, UNEP
in partnership with the World Bank, and with additional financial support from
the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration, collaborated
in the preparation of the interlinkages assessment report Protecting Our
Planet, Securing Our Future: Linkages Among Global Environmental Issues and
Human Needs. The central message of
the report is that scientific and policy interlinkages among major global
environmental issues must be understood and that they need to be addressed in a
more holistic manner if sustainable development is to become a reality. Moreover, the report is a major step forward
in response to the growing concern that global environmental issues are being
dealt with in a fragmented, disconnected manner.
Suggested action by the
Governing Council
The Governing Council may wish to adopt a
decision along the following lines:
Bearing in mind Governing Council
decisions 19/1 of 7 February 1997, on the Nairobi Declaration on the Role and
Mandate of the United Nations Environment Programme, and SS.V/2 of 22 May 1998,
on revitalization, reform and strengthening of the United Nations Environment
Programme,
Having considered the report of the
Executive Director on promoting interlinkages among global environmental issues
and human needs (UNEP/GC.20/40),
Mindful of the importance of the
scientific and policy interlinkages among global environmental issues, and
their relevance to the human needs of food, shelter, health and clean water,
Noting with appreciation the
constructive collaboration between the United Nations Environment Programme and
the World Bank in this initiative, as well as the financial support provided by
the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration,
1. Welcomes
the report Protecting Our Planet, Securing Our Future: Linkages Among Global
Environmental Issues and Human Needs;
2. Expresses
its appreciation to the many experts who contributed freely their time and
expertise to the preparation of the report;
3. Urges
Governments to take into consideration the conclusions and recommendations of the
report in the preparation of their national environment and sustainable
development strategies and plans;
4. Requests
the Executive Director to provide the conclusions and recommendations of the
report to the governing bodies of global environment conventions and relevant
international agreements;
5. Further
requests the Executive Director to continue work on the scientific and
policy interlinkages among global environmental issues and human needs, paying
particular attention to the scientific and policy linkages among global and
regional environment conventions and related international agreements;
6. Urges
the World Bank and other concerned international, regional and national
organizations to collaborate with the United Nations Environment Programme in
this endeavour.
I. BACKGROUND
1. The concept for this paper originated at a
workshop organized by UNEP in early 1996 on approaches to conserve and
sustainably use biodiversity. The
workshop focused principally on the interlinkages between biodiversity and
climate change. The meeting recognized
that the scientific community, policy makers in Governments and the
secretariats of global environment conventions treated the issues of climate
change, loss of biological diversity, land degradation and desertification,
stratospheric ozone depletion, freshwater degradation, deforestation and
unsustainable forestry, marine environment and resource degradation, and
persistent organic pollutants in isolation, despite being linked through a set
of physical, chemical and biological processes. At
the conclusion of the workshop, UNEP formed a group of experts to prepare a
report identifying the key scientific and policy linkages among these issues,
as well as the linkages between these global environmental issues and the
question of meeting the basic human needs of adequate food, clean water, energy
and a healthy environment. This group
of experts met on several occasions to tackle the complex task of analysing the
scientific and policy linkages among global environmental issues and how these
in turn are linked to meeting key human needs.
II. THE INTERLINKAGES ASSESSMENT REPORT
2. The interlinkages assessment report, Protecting
Our Planet, Securing Our Future: Linkages Among Global Environmental Issues and
Human Needs, was produced with the support of many scientists, policy
makers and technical specialists. It is
directed at policy makers who represent their Governments at the negotiating
sessions of environmental conventions, as well as managers and planners at the
national level in ministries such as environment, agriculture, forestry, water
resources, natural resource management, economic planning, energy, industry,
and health.
3. As the end of the millennium approaches, the
report clearly shows that environmental degradation is accelerating and the
human condition deteriorating in many parts of the world. Both are inextricably linked: these global
environmental problems are caused by the same driving forces of population
size, level of consumption, and choice of technologies. The report clearly signals that the current
rate of global environmental degradation is unprecedented and that reversing
environmental damage, depending on the problem, can take decades to centuries. In the case of loss of biological diversity,
the damage is irreversible.
4.
Three important recommendations emanate from the report:
(a) To
effectively respond to global environmental problems, and in turn meet human
needs more effectively, global environmental issues must be addressed in a
holistic, integrated manner, building on the same policy instruments, such as
global and regional environmental conventions, and technologies that are used
to contend with these issues currently in a sectoral manner;