Vesna Peric Zimonjic
BELGRADE, Oct 12 2007 (IPS) – Representatives from 51 countries agreed at a three-day conference in Belgrade this week to undertake new environmental improvements to build sustainable development.
The countries came together under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). The grouping combines European and Caucasian countries, and the United States and Canada.
The meeting, that concluded in Belgrade Friday, was supported by the Serbian environment ministry and regional offices of other UN agencies, international financial institutions and the European Union.
For the first time, the Environment for Europe (EfE) conference brought in education ministers of member countries in an effort to promote environmental awareness among the young.
EfE is a process that began in former Czechoslovakia in 1991 and is continuously going on, Serbian environment minister Sasa Dragin told media representatives. The basic aim of the Belgrade conference was to evaluate progress, as well as to show us further direction.
This was the sixth such conference of the member countries. Earlier conferences were held in Prague in 1991, Lucerne (Switzerland) in 1993, Sofia (Bulgaria) in 1995, Aarhus (Denmark) in 1998 and Kiev (Ukraine) in 2003. The next will be in Kazakhstan in 2011.
Serbia declared it the most important conference it has hosted after the non-aligned summit in 1989, and saw in the event a symbol of its return to international waters after years of isolation during the wars of the 1990s.
A declaration at the end of the conference called for efforts by member countries to make environmental cooperation a pillar for sustainable development in the region. This, in turn, should contribute to poverty eradication by improving the quality of life and making a safer world.
The declaration is being taken particular note of in the Balkans. Countries of the western Balkans (Albania, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia) certainly share all these problems, Serbian minister Sasa Dragin told IPS.
Development of the economy still stands far above awareness on the environment, Dragin added. But, he pointed out, many environmental problems are the heritage of the past.
The conference declaration warned that more than 100 million people in UNECE countries, in the pan-European region, still do not have access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation. Air pollution, mainly by fine particles, ground-level ozone, and nitrogen oxides shorten average life expectancy by almost one year, and affect the healthy development of children, it said.
Biodiversity decline and loss of ecosystems continues, and consumption and production patterns are a growing concern, the declaration said. Environmental impacts of waste and transport are growing, the declaration warned.
It pledged that governments in the EfE process will together with our citizens and civil society, including the private sector, provide a healthy environment for present and future generations.
We also reconfirm our commitment to promote sustainable development which is increasingly affected by globalisation. In this regard, we will intensify our efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
The declaration warns that energy consumption and resulting greenhouse gas emissions have been increasing in the pan-European region, despite energy efficiency improvements and increased use of renewable energy in certain areas.
Climate change is projected to impact many sectors of the economy and natural resources, while improper management and disposal of hazardous chemicals continues to be damaging, the declaration points out.
Climate change is visible in our region, Dragin said. That is why the conference welcomed the establishment of the regional monitoring centre for climate changes in Belgrade, with the aim of helping us all overcome the problem.
The western Balkans have seen little rain and no snow in autumn and winter, and long, dry and hot summers.
Many countries agreed to improve trans-border cooperation. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has stressed examples of cooperation in its first study on environmental policy in the region, and called for further improvement.
No man is an island and no country can live a separate life, Montenegrin tourism and environment minister Predrag Nenezic told IPS. We have had very good experience in cooperation with Albania where the Shkodra Lake preservation is concerned, but also with other neighbours Bosnia, Serbia.
Despite differences from the past with some of them, we share similar experiences and expectations we are all new nations who want economic development, and a better future. We have the common environment to fit in as well.
