The debate covered all the wide range of issues that
are included in Agenda 21. On all of them the
need for further action was noted and ideas for strengthening implementation were identified. Some
countries were unwilling to go beyond this in placing emphasis on particular subjects, but most
agreed that six areas in particular emerged as deserving special effort and attention:
The need to combat poverty and growing inequality in
the world, and particularly to bring help to the
poorest countries in the South, which have lost out on recent economic growth elsewhere, and
whose very poverty exacerbates and is exacerbated by their environmental problems such as tree
loss, drought, desertification, soil loss, etc;
Associated with this is the need to arrest the decline
in levels of official development assistance, or
to find other means of bringing effective help to the poorest countries;
- The
need to bring fresh water and sanitation to the hundreds of millions of people who lack
them at present, at the same time as dealing with the long-term problems of dwindling water
resources and increasing pollution of water in many parts of the world;
- The
need for a clear global strategy to deal with the climate change issue (together with the
related transport and energy issues);
- The
need to establish an effective ongoing process to promote the sustainable management of
forests throughout the world;
- The
need for more effective international cooperation and political impetus to protect the marine
environment and halt the catastrophic decline of fish stocks in many parts of the world
resulting from competitive over-fishing.
There were many other significant issues on the agenda
as well, but it was widely felt that it would
be on these six that the main attention of the world would focus and on which the success or
failure of the session would depend.
