Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 9 Oct 2002

Vol. 554 No. 5

Written Answers. - Environmental Policy.

Seán Haughey

Question:

1483 Mr. Haughey asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the Government's position in relation to the World Summit on Sustainable Development; his views on the outcome of the Summit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15963/02]

Minister for the Environment and Local Government (Mr. Cullen):

The primary aim of the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development was to hold a ten year review of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and to reinvigorate the global commitment to sustainable development.

The summit agreed the "Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development", and a plan of implementation reaffirming commitment to existing targets in the UN Millennium Declaration and other international agreements, and including a range of new action-based commitments and time-bound targets in relation to access to sanitation, safer production and use of chemicals, access to energy and increasing the global share of renewable energy sources, reduction in the current rate of loss of biodiversity, development of programmes to achieve sustainable production and consumption, maintenance or restoration of depleted fish stocks, ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by those states which have not yet ratified, strengthening of health care systems for the delivery of basic health care to all, and, promotion of good governance and gender equity.

The plan of implementation also calls for the creation of a World Solidarity Fund for the eradication of extreme poverty, the modalities of which are to be determined by the UN General Assembly. In support of the plan, numerous part nerships for sustainable development were launched between governments and business in the developed world and developing countries and international agencies, including two EU partnerships on water and energy. These are designed to give practical effect to relevant commitments in the plan. Ireland joined with a number of other member states and obtained clarification that the EU partnership on energy did not include nuclear energy as an option within the initiative.

While a specific target for renewable energy was not agreed, the EU, supported by a number of other countries, issued a declaration underlining their commitment to co-operate in the further development and promotion of renewable energy technologies, and to the adoption of renewable energy targets. Ireland's national report for the summit, Making Ireland's Development Sustainable, which I launched in July 2002 reviews Ireland's progress towards sustainable development over the period 1992-2002, and identifies our policy priorities for the decade ahead. I am satisfied that the positive outcomes from the summit, and the renewed emphasis on the standing agenda from Rio, will have an important influence on the delivery of our policy priorities towards more sustainable patterns of development.