UNCED Undone: Key Issues Agenda 21 Doesn't Adress

Greenpeace

1. ATMOSPHERE

All references to realistic energy and transport pricing policies, fuel and emissions performance standards, and strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions have been systematically eliminated from Agenda 21. The US successfully blocked any requirements for changes in "lifestyles and consumption patterns." The US, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait strongly opposed any suggestion that CO2 be considered an atmospheric pollutant. UNCED is maintaining the continued dependence and addiction on fossil fuels, especially oil. Calls for a new international agency to promote renewable energy in response to the greenhouse crisis have been ignored.

2. DEFORESTATION

UNCED has abandoned the original UN resolution seeking an urgent plan from the Earth Summit to save the Earth's remaining forests.  It also fails to recognize and support the land and cultural rights of indigenous peoples and traditional forest dwellers.  Instead, Agenda 21: 

• proposes expansion of "forest cover" through plantations thus securing a source of cheap raw materials for pulp and paper and timber companies; and  
• supports strengthening the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as keys to development. Both the ITTO and the FAO have helped accelerate deforestation in the tropics.

3. RADIOACTIVE WASTE

A nuclear-free future is not on UNCED's agenda. In fact, Agenda 21: 

• fails to recognize that there are no safe storage or disposal solutions to the world's growing radioactive waste problem, and that the generation of nuclear waste must be halted;  
• does not call for a permanent ban on the dumping at sea of radioactive waste;  
• does not recognize that certain technological options such as commercial reprocessing, produce more wastes than others; and
• neglects the massive nuclear contamination caused by military activities around the world.

4. TOXICS

UNCED has failed to adopt measures for an immediate ban on the movement of hazardous wastes from OECD countries to non-OECD countries. Proposals to pressure the North into solving its own toxic and nuclear waste problems have either been rejected or watered down. Agenda 21:  

• condones industrial countries exporting their hazardous waste elsewhere;  
• avoids adopting authentic Clean Production guidelines which would require product re-design, alternative non-hazardous inputs, and resource conservation;  
• promotes the export of hazardous waste for recycling, treating it as "clean production" despite the toxic impacts; and  
• advocates voluntary rather than regulatory action in controlling pollution resulting from industrial activities.

5. BIOTECHNOLOGY

UNCED assumes that Biotechnology is necessary for all aspects of environmentally sound and sustainable development, disregarding the serious likelihood that it could lead to a loss of biodiversity and the uncontrolled release of genetically altered organisms into the environment. Agenda 21 makes no reference to the urgent need to regulate the biotechnology industry and instead, promotes "co-operation" in "safety measures" which would prevent the full disclosure of the negative environmental and health effects on the public. Agenda 21 offers only a lenient, voluntary international code of conduct which would allow the misuse of biotechnology.

6. LAND-BASED SOURCES  OF MARINE POLLUTION

UNCED has rejected efforts to establish a global regime to address the many sources of marine pollution originating on land. The scientific community generally agrees that land-based sources account for 75-80 per cent of the problem, causing serious damage to coastal waters. This contrasts with dumping (10 per cent) and vessel pollution (10 per cent). Agenda 21 focuses on regional and national initiatives which encourage "business as usual", while only calling upon UNEP to convene an intergovernmental meeting that only might advance global strategies.

7. FISHERIES

UNCED has failed to address the rampant expansion and industrialization of the world's fisheries which has been driven largely by Northern interests, markets and technology. The tremendous growth in the fishing industry over the past several decades has led to the widespread depletion of fish stocks, degradation of marine ecosystems and considerable hardship for coastal communities and cultures in the North and South. Agenda 21 does recognize: the importance of traditional knowledge; the rights of indigenous and coastal peoples in the management of fisheries; and the need to protect critical areas of marine habitat. But it fails to link the pressure of debt and trade in driving the unchecked expansion of large-scale industrialized and destructive fishing methods. While the high seas are recognized as a "global commons," the high seas fishing nations, in particular the EC, have actively opposed any move in UNCED to control industrial fishing.

8. AGRICULTURE

UNCED has made some positive steps by:  

• attempting to develop a comprehensive approach to sustainable agriculture and rural development;  
• acknowledging farmers and local communities as stewards of the land;  
• recognizing the need for increased emphasis on biological pest control and other non-chemical alternatives; and  
• creating an International Ecological Agriculture Network.  

It has not, however, gone far enough to ensure sustainable ecological agriculture.

Specifically, UNCED:  

• puts too much emphasis on achieving food security through increased production instead of addressing post-harvest wastage;  
• fails to adopt the principle of precaution in pesticide use;  
• does not focus on efforts to phase out all chemical pesticides which are toxic, persistent and/or bioaccumulative; and  
• plays down the threats posed by the introduction of genetically modified species into agricultural ecosystems.

9. NUCLEAR LIABILITY

Agenda 21 fails to consider the need to protect the victims of nuclear accidents through unlimited liability for trans-boundary nuclear pollution. All calls for a new regime on international liability have been ignored throughout the negotiations. UNCED has refused to consider moving from limits on liability to unlimited liability despite the Chernobyl nuclear accident and its impacts on several generations. Instead, it has left in place the outdated global nuclear treaty regimes -- the Paris Convention, 1960, and Vienna Convention, 1963.

10. CORAL REEFS

Agenda 21's marine environment and fisheries section, gives little targeted attention to the special threats facing coral reefs. This is despite the acknowledged "front line" risks from climate change-induced temperature changes. Coral reef ecosystems deserve much more specialized attention, protection and conservation.

Back...