A/42/427
English
Page 326
91. To promote the peaceful and early settlement of international disputes on environmental and resource management problems. it is recommended that the following procedure be adopted. States should be given up to 18 months to reach mutual agreement on a solution or on a common dispute settlement arrangement. If agreement is not reached, there, the dispute can be submitted to conciliation at the request of any one of the concerned states and, if still unresolved, thereafter to arbitration or judicial settlement.
92. This proposed new procedure raises the possibility of invoking , binding process of dispute settlement at the request of any state. Binding settlement is not the preferred method for settling international disputes. But such a provision is now needed not only as a last resort to avoid prolonged disputes and possible serious environmental damage, but also to encourage and provide an incentive for all parties to reach agreement within a reasonable time on either a solution or a mutually agreed means, such as mediation.
93. The capabilities of the Permanent Court of Arbitration the International Court of Justice to deal with environmental and resource management problems also should be strengthened. States should make greater use of the Wor1d Court's capacity under Article 26 of its Statute to form special chambers for dealing with particular cases or categories of cases, including environmental protection or resource management cases. The has declared its willingness and readiness to deal with such cases fully and promptly.
6. Investing in Our Future
94. We have endeavoured to show that it makes long-term economic sense to pursue environmentally sound policies. But potentially very large financial outlays will be needed in the short term in such fields as renewable energy development. pollution control equipment, and, integrated rural development. Developing countries will need massive assistance for this purpose, and more generally to reduce poverty. Responding to this financial need will be a collective investment in the future
6.2 National Action
95. Past Experience teaches us that these outlays would be investments. By the late 1960s, when some industrial countries began to mount significant environmental protection programme they had already incurred heavy economic costs in the form of
damage to human health, property, natural resources, and the environment. After 1970, in order to roll back some of this damage, they saw expenditures on environmental pollution measure alone rise from about 0.3 per cent of GNP in 1970 to somewhere between .5 per cent and, in some countries, 2.0 per cent around the end of the decade. Assuming low levels of economic growth in the future, these same countries will probably ave to increase expenditures on environmental protection of somewhere between 20 to 100 per cent just to maintain current levels of environmental quality.[1]
- ↑ OECD, Environment and Economics, Vol. I, op. cit.
