President Donald Ramotar yesterday told a Caricom-Mexico summit that key concerns of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) have been left out of preparatory meetings for the upcoming United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development known as Rio+20.
He also called for the commitments made to vulnerable states 20 years ago at the Rio `Earth Summit’ to be met.
The President was speaking in Barbados on behalf of Caricom, ahead of the Rio+20 summit to be held in Brazil on the 20th anniversary of the ground-breaking summit of 1992.
“As we continue our dialogue with Mexico on issues which are on the priority agenda of the international community, I am pleased to be able to share the views of Caricom on the upcoming United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development or Rio+20. In our preparations for this Conference we have been mindful that its objectives are: To secure renewed political commitment for sustainable development; To assess the progress made since 1992 and the remaining gaps in the implementation of the outcomes of the major Summits on sustainable development, and to address new and emerging challenges,” said President Ramotar.
He said that the sustainable development agenda must be fully embraced as a priority of the summit. “Any model or approach to development (green or blue economy, green growth or low carbon development) that fails to integrate the social, economic and environmental dimensions of development will ultimately be unsustainable in the long-term,” he said.
Ramotar called on the international community to honour all commitments made to SIDS. He said too that the international community must provide assistance to address the special competition constraints of SIDS due to their very small markets. They must also provide financial and technical support for enhanced national, regional and SIDS-SIDS cooperation for research and technological development, said Ramotar.
The President expressed concern that the Quito Declaration which was issued following the First Meeting of Ministers of the Environment of CELAC, excluded a number of issues of importance to Small Island Developing States. “Given its importance to Caricom, the issue of Small Island Developing and Low Lying Coastal States should be mainstreamed within the CELAC agenda in order for this to be reflected in the Rio+20 Outcome Document,” he said.
“We are concerned that the negotiations over the Zero Draft document reveal a high level of disagreement on issues which are at the core of the objectives of the Conference,” he said.
He said that arising out of Rio in 1992, it was recognised that developing countries needed a great deal of assistance in terms of financial, material and human resources in order to move forward. He noted that the developed countries did make clear commitments to provide a significant level of the assistance and to create a more equitable global environment for the developing countries.
“In the 20 years since then, developing countries have been able to significantly improve their capacities for natural resources and environmental management. Despite the fact that they have been helped through programmes and projects financed through the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Rio Conventions and bilateral arrangements with some developed countries, the sum total of assistance received is just a small part of what was promised in Rio in 1992,” he said. Ramotar added that as a result, developing countries are still badly in need of the promised support to meet the ever increasing challenges.
“Small island and low lying coastal developing states, in particular, continue to face increasing pressures from more frequent and more intense attacks from natural disasters and need to develop appropriate and effective response mechanisms. The preparation of the zero document should now focus on ensuring that the main hurdles to the implementation of Agenda 21 and related action plans are honestly identified and appropriate measures be considered for a renewed effort to remove these hurdles and fulfil the expectations generated twenty years ago,” he said.
He said that priority issues for Caricom within the context of the negotiation of the Outcome Document are Tourism, Health, Oceans, Climate Change and Energy. “We are supportive of the call by other developing countries for an additional negotiation session to ensure a successful and mutually satisfactory outcome of the Rio+20,” he said.
“Caricom is committed to the green economy approach. Member states have been and are interpreting the green economy concept according to their national sustainable development priorities and national economic and social conditions. In fact, several of our member states have developed, or are in the process of developing, sectoral policies, sustainable development strategies, strategic and medium term planning programmes and natural resource management frameworks that serve as the basis for a greener, low-carbon economic transition and, at the same time, address the issue of poverty eradication and the broader goal of sustainable development,” he said.
President Ramotar said Rio+20 must address fundamental sustainable development challenges crucial to achieving a green economy which should ensure greater integration between the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development.
He said the summit must be consistent with Agenda 21 and the Rio principles ensuring greater equity and inclusion within and between countries, and providing greater opportunities and benefits for all citizens and countries.
He said that the summit must provide appropriate policy space for developing countries; and involve all relevant stakeholders – big and small.
“There is an emerging convergence of views that, at the very least, Rio+20 can launch a process leading to the sustainable development goals and define the principles by which they will be governed.
Means of implementation remain the most difficult section in this phase as developed countries have stated they have no intention of undertaking new financial commitments and, in some instances, have reneged on previous commitments,” he said.
He said that the changes in the world in the last 20 years have created many new factors which have helped or hindered the realization of the sustainable development agenda. “Caricom is of the view that Rio+20 must address the following emerging issues: non communicable diseases; ecosystem services – especially pertaining to REDD+, marine ecosystem services and emerging blue carbon frameworks; food insecurity and energy insecurity,” he said.
