Environment and sustainable development

Environmental problems need better global governance

Global issues have increasingly driven European environmental policy. Some of the most pressing environmental concerns today, such as climate change, ozone depletion and biodiversity loss, are global in scope, requiring coordinated international action.

The European Union plays an active role in international environmental forums, believing that existing international bodies dealing with such issues must be reinforced and made more efficient. This entails strengthening the international institutional framework, in particular the United Nations Environment Programme, and ensuring better implementation of environmental agreements. The EU also advocates the inclusion of environmental considerations into the activities of other UN bodies and the international financial institutions.

Practising what it preaches

The EU has been instrumental in achieving many of the major environmental conventions negotiated recently (on the ozone layer, climate change, desertification, biodiversity, hazardous wastes, hazardous chemicals, etc.).

It has also played a key role by giving guidance to governments on how to develop their environmental policy. This includes an active follow-up of the Rio process and Agenda 21, and full participation in the work of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD).

The EU was broadly satisfied with the outcome of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg (September 2002). The implementation plan and the political declaration have shaped a global partnership for sustainable development. Good governance and a better environment are part of the deal.

The implementation plan contains a set of new targets on access to basic sanitation, biodiversity, fish stocks and chemicals, which complement the Millennium Development Goals. Implementation of national sustainable development strategies is to start by 2005, and a 10-year framework for programmes on sustainable consumption and production will be developed. There was also agreement to increase the share of renewable energy in the total energy mix, and to complement this, the EU launched an initiative to work with other likeminded countries in a 'coalition for renewables' that is now being developed.

EC President Romano Prodi and Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, representing the EU presidency at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, September 2002. UN/DPI photo by Eskinder Debebe.

The most innovative element of Johannesburg was the announcement of more than 200 voluntary partnerships for sustainable development, involving governments, international institutions and stakeholders. These partnerships, including two important EU partnerships on water and energy, will be an important instrument to mobilise action and resources at all levels.

Just as the EU played a leading role at the summit, it will take the lead in the follow-up by focusing on implementation of the commitments made. Some existing instruments, for example the sustainable development strategy agreed in Göteborg in June 2001 and the sixth environmental action programme, provide the framework for the EU to implement the outcome of the WSSD. EU leaders addressed the followup to the WSSD at the spring European Council in 2003, reiterating their commitment: to the new goals and targets agreed in Johannesburg; to ensuring effective follow-up to the commitment made in Monterrey on the realisation of the 0.7 % target for ODA; to promoting sustainable and fair trade; and to the timely elaboration at both international and EU levels of the 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production.

Combating climate change

Climate change has become one of the most important global environmental challenges, and the EU is at the forefront of international efforts to fight it. The EU has established targets for significant reductions in greenhouse emissions and, as a first step, it has achieved its commitment to stabilise its own CO2 emissions by 2000 at 1990 levels. The objective, in line with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, is to stabilise the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases at a level that will not cause unnatural variations of the earth's climate.

The EU is thus strongly committed to ratification and implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, the basis for further efforts by all parties in the global fight against human-induced elements of climate change. The EU believes that the Kyoto Protocol represents the right international framework to face this challenge. It also supports capacity building to assist developing countries in implementing the convention. The EU and all its Member States have shown leadership in the fight against climate change by living up to their commitments and ratifying the Kyoto Protocol in May 2002.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, European Commissioner for the Environment Margot Wallström and Spanish Environment Minister Jaume Palau at the celebrations following the signing of the Kyoto Protocol, New York, April 2002.
Photo: Permanent Mission of Spain to the UN.

And the EU continuously calls upon other countries to complete their ratification processes as soon as possible.
For more information, please see: http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/climat/home_ en.htm.
Also relevant is: http://europa.eu.int/comm/ environment/ozone/index.htm.

The EU also supports the Forum on Forests, the Convention to Combat Desertification, the Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants and the Montreal Protocol on the ozone layer. The EU worked for and obtained a successful replenishment of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), which, at USD 2.92 billion, was the highest replenishment ever, with additional voluntary contributions from some EU Member States. This will provide additional support for the new mandate of the GEF with regard to persistent organic pollutants and desertification.

Protecting the seas

To tackle the complexity and diversity of marine issues and challenges, the EU has adopted a wide range of policies and approaches. The themes range from the conservation of biodiversity, management of fisheries and aquaculture and sustaining livelihoods of coastal communities, to flood protection and pollution control.

This diversity of issues is reflected in a host of international, regional and national commitments and conventions such as Agenda 21, the UNEP regional seas programme and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which the European Community is a contracting party. The EU attaches great importance to the implementation of the existing international framework of treaties and agreements.

Action contributing to development and environmental protection has been acquiring increasing importance in the European Union. The EU common fisheries policy supports international efforts to achieve sustainable fisheries, and the EU plays an active role in cooperating with developing countries through international action within the framework of the UN bodies, and in regional fisheries organisations.

Preserving biodiversity

The European Community and its Member States are contracting parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and are active participants in follow-up activities, including the Biosafety Protocol, which the EC ratified in August 2002.

Adopted in 1998, the Community's biodiversity strategy defines a framework for the actions necessary to implement fully the CBD, focusing on the integration of biodiversity concerns into the development and implementation of relevant sectoral policies. Specific biodiversity action plans for the conservation of natural resources, agriculture, fisheries and development and economic cooperation were adopted in spring 2001. The EU fully endorses the target to reduce significantly the rate of loss of biological diversity by 2010 included in the WSSD plan of implementation. In fact, the Göteborg European Council adopted the European sustainable development strategy, including the more ambitious target of halting biodiversity decline by 2010, as set out in the sixth environmental action programme.

In February 2002, the European Commission proposed a regulation on the transboundary movement of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). When adopted, this regulation will complete the EC legislative framework implementing the provisions of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.

The social dimension

The social dimension of sustainable development has become increasingly important for the EU, which implies promoting the same integrated approach to social and economic policy both internally and beyond Europe's borders. It also means supporting quality employment and social cohesion, promoting a high level of employment and social protection and social dialogue by ensuring respect for core labour standards, supporting gender equality and the fight against discrimination and social exclusion.

Moreover, the recent creation of a World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalisation, and the progress made by the ILO in promoting implementation of its fundamental conventions, are important steps in that direction.

The EU attaches great importance to its relationship with the ILO, which started with the first EC-ILO agreement in 1958. This was strengthened by an exchange of letters between EU Commissioner Diamantopoulou and ILO Director-General Somavia in May 2001. The EC has also put forward proposals for an institutional strengthening of the ILO itself. Both organisations share a commitment to social and economic progress, improving living and working conditions and promoting employment.

However, there has been growing public concern that the social aspects of globalisation have been neglected. The implementation of the Commission communication on promoting core labour standards and improving social governance provides the backdrop for EU contributions to the discussions of the ILO working party on the social dimension of globalisation. It is also the context for EU participation in the World Commission established by the ILO to strengthen the dialogue between international organisations and civil society.

Respect for core labour standards is also a key premise for EU development policy. ILO standards are incorporated into EC assistance programmes. The fight against child labour is a case in point. Here, the EU is a major contributor to the ILO International Programme on Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC). There is also cooperation between the EU and the ILO in the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR).

The European social model provides an important dimension of EC-ILO cooperation. Employment policies, including skills and mobility, employment reports and guidelines, migration and trafficking, occupational health and safety at work, social protection and social dialogue are all examples of how the EU can provide a benchmark for policy worldwide.

European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection David Byrne receives the WHO Director-General's award for his "leadership in global tobacco control" at the headquarters of the World Health Organisation, presented to him by Derek Yach, WHO Executive Director of the non-communicable diseases and mental health cluster, June 2003.
Photo: P. Virot/WHO.

The EU has also contributed to major UN conferences on gender equality, racism, ageing, as well as to their follow-up. It also aims to ensure that issues of social governance are dealt with effectively by other UN bodies, such as ECOSOC, the Commission for Social Development, and the UNGA's Third Committee, as well as the major conferences.

NGOs: an essential partner

NGOs formed part of the European Community and many Member State delegations to the Rio Conference, Rio + 5, the WSSD and to most sessions of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development. In addition, the EU has regularly supported the NGO Steering Committee of the CSD.

Environmental NGOs participate in EU expert groups and in preparatory and implementation committees, providing important input to EU policies, programmes and initiatives. EU Member States involve NGOs and other sectors of civil society as part of advisory councils on environment and sustainable development in the design of national as well as local strategies such as 'Local agenda 21' initiatives.

The 1998 action programme to promote European environmental NGOs provides a legal framework for the financial relationship between the EC and NGOs on these issues. Dialogue on the environment is assisted by the existence of the European Environmental Bureau, which brings together around 140 large and small NGOs at the European level.

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