Toepfer calls for safe and equitable biotech adoption

The UNEP head observed that through global environmental assessment it had been confirmed that the burden of the world’s population coupled with over-consumption and wasteful use of resources by the rich were the two fundamental causes for environmental degradation.
“A successful environmental strategy must take account of this relationship and the need for a capacity-building initiative for the developing countries,” he added.
Dr Toepfer told the participants that in addressing poverty and the environment with sustainable patterns of consumption and production, it was was important to relate their resolutions to the theme of the recent Johannesburg Summit, Responsible Prosperity for All.
He hailed the work undertaken by the intergovernmental group of ministers saying it was through their committed effort that UNEP was now equipped with a comprehensive international environmental law.
He said the body established by the governing council had also helped to create a comprehensive body of policy guidance for the environment and sustainable development.
He urged the delegates from over 160 countries, who had gathered for the international environmental forum, to use the opportunity for constructive dialogue based on clear information to reduce old tensions and find new solutions to the existing issues.
“In this world, which is characterised by increasing tensions, conflict and growing inequality which pose a threat to our common future, we have to define our contribution to the unifying call of “We the people!,’’ he said.
In his message to the delegates,the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, called for the sustainability of the partnership forged at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in all areas, from coral reefs and clean drinking water to cleaner vehicle fuels and the air that we all breathe.
In a speech read on his behalf by the UNEP deputy executive director, Shafqat Kakakhel, Annan noted that the world now understands, more than ever before, that prosperity at the expense of the environment is no prosperity at all.
He added that the Johannesburg Summit had given a blueprint for improving the world, while delivering economic growth for all without short-changing this generation or generations to come.
He challenged the delegates to translate the blueprint into a work programme for UNEP in realising the promises on cleaner air, seas and land.
During the opening session, the Uganda Minister for Water, Land and Environment, Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, was elected president of UNEP’s 22nd governing council for a period of two years. He replaces the Canadian Minister for Environment, David Anderson.
During Anderson’s tenure, the council completed the first ever global assessment of mercury and launched the great apes survival project. The Stockholm Convention on persistence of organic pollutants was also unanimously adopted.
In the past two years, the first inter-governmental review of the global programme of action to evaluate the progress in protecting the marine environment and identify areas for future action as well as releasing the third global environmental outlook were also achieved.