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English
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All governments should develop a 'foreign policy for the environment' as one major way of improving the international coordination of national environmental policies.
But in the long-term perspective, and here I think the World Commission could have an important message, I think that it will be politically sound and wise to get support from the NGOs to prepare for changes that have to take place anyway sooner or later. So I think it would be politically wish to look into that in a much broader way than what has been done so far.
Mats Seqnestam
Swedish Society for the
Conservation of Nature
WCED Public Hearing
Oslo. 24-25 June 1985
plans.[1] These are essential to obtain an accurate picture of the true health and wealth of the national economy. and to assess progress towards sustainable development.[2]
28. Governments who have not done so should consider developing a 'foreign policy for the environment'.[3]A nation's foreign policy needs to reflect the fact that its policies have a growing impact on the environmental resource base of other nations and the commons, just as the policies of other nations have an impact on its own. This is true of certain energy, agricultural, and other sectoral policies discussed in this report. as well as certain foreign investment, trade, and development assistance policies and those concerning the import or export of hazardous chemicals, wastes, and technology.
1.2 Reqional and Interregional Action
29. The existing regional and subregional organizations within and outside the UN system need to be strengthened and made responsible and accountable for ensuring that their programmes and budgets encourage and support sustainable development policies and practices. In some areas, however, especially among developing countries, new regional and subregional arrangements will be needed to deal with transboundary environmental resource issues.
30. Some countries already enjoy comparatively well developed bilateral and regional structures, although many of them lack the mandate and support required to carry out the greatly expanded role they must assume in he future. These include many specialized bilateral organizations such as the Canada/USA International Joint Commission: subregional agencies in Europe such as the different Commissions for the Rhine River, the Danube River, and the Baltic Sea: and organizations such as the CMEA, OECD, and EEC. These bodies provide member countries with a strong foundation on which to build. Although most of them have effective programmes for international cooperation on environmental protection and natural resources management, these
- ↑ L. Gagnon, Union Quebecoise pour la Conservation de la Nature. Quebec. 'Pour Une Revision des Sciences Economiques', submitted to WCED Public Hearings, Ottawa, 1986. See also the review of the state-of-the art concerning natural resource accounts, including detailed case studies from Norway and France, in OECD. Information and Natural Resources (Paris: 1986).
- ↑ T. Friend, 'Natural Resource Accounting and its Relationship with Economic and Environmental Accounting', Statistics Canada, Ottawa, September 1986.
- ↑ The need for an explicit 'foreign policy for environment' was raised in different ways in the discussion at many WCED public hearings, but originally in a joint submission by Nordic NGOs to the Public Hearings in Oslo, 1985
