Rio de Janeiro, 3 Apr (EFE).-the UN Conference on sustainable development RÃo+20, which will be held in Rio de Janeiro next June, will discuss three options to create an environmental world body in addition to the likely reform of UNEP.
Brazil of negotiating Chief, Luiz Alberto Figueiredo, said today in a press conference that “there is a consensus” of the need to “strengthen” the UN programme for the environment (UNEP) to assign a fixed budget, provide it with executive functions and expanding the number of members.
Figueiredo explained that some countries want to convert UNEP into an agency of the UN, while others, as it is the case of Brazil, do not want to “create a new bureaucracy”.
“We want a strengthening UNEP real, give appropriate means to ensure that it exercises its functions, acting as a partner of the countries, which serves as a facilitator for the implementation of public policies in the environmental area and as an engine for training in this area closely”, said Figueiredo.
Three options are handled in parallel with the reform of UNEP, to create a body within the United Nations would be responsible for drawing up the policy guidelines for achieving the goals of sustainable development, according to the Brazilian diplomat.
The first option being studied is to transform the Council for sustainable development of the United Nations in a Committee, which would mean “amount category” to that body.
The second proposal contemplates add “environmental” functions to the economic and Social Council of the UN (ECOSOC), and the third create a Forum Ministerial on sustainable development within the United Nations.
As the Brazilian official, the RÃo+20 “not intended to legislate”, will have no ability to establish obligations to countries and intended to set concrete goals to contribute to the full implementation of the principles of the “green economy” and sustainable development will be marked.
Brazil aims to all countries, “not only the emerging”, adopt sustainable development and poverty eradication goals.
Figueiredo admitted, however, that some countries “fear” that the adoption of specific objectives in the field of green economy can be used as an excuse “to establish barriers in international trade” against those who do not implement them.
The RÃo+20 organizers expect the participation of a hundred heads of State and Government in this event, to be held in Rio de Janeiro, twenty years after the Earth Summit, convened in the same city in 1992, which laid the foundations of contemporary sustainable development.
Brazil, Luiz Alberto Figueiredo, Chief negotiator said that “consensus” of the need to “strengthen” the programme of the United Nations Environment Programme to assign a fixed budget, provide it with executive functions and expanding the membership. EFE/file
