Media Room Speeches and Statements

A Statement by
the Honourable David Anderson, P.C., M.P.
Minister of the Environment, Government of Canada

Closing Press Conference

World Summit on Sustainable Development

September 4, 2002

To summarize the major results of the Summit, I want to put the whole event in context. Why did the world come here? Why did Canada come here?

Because the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 set visionary goals, not the implementation roadmap to achieve those goals.

Rio gave us key framework conventions on biodiversity, climate change and desertification. It set out the concept of sustainable development in Agenda 21.

But Rio couldn’t give us a detailed roadmap.

So, we needed to focus on implementation – how to achieve those goals.

We needed to focus on integration – how to get everyone in our societies and economies and in our international institutions working together to achieve those goals.

The emphasis on implementation and integration meant a different Summit than Rio. Certainly, we addressed issues of sustainable development in the Plan of Implementation and the Summit Declaration. For example, we set new targets for access to sanitation, the production and use of toxic chemicals and on biological diversity.

We also made sure that existing commitments were reinforced. Canada stood up successfully for human rights as an essential part of the sustainable development equation.

I know that many people went into this Summit wondering about Canada’s commitment to the Kyoto Protocol and to action on climate change.

The Prime Minister made our view clear when he told the Summit that we will ask Parliament to vote on ratification before the end of the year. Our approach to implementing our Kyoto commitments will be based on our extensive consultations over the past five years with provinces and stakeholders.

But those elements were only part of the outcome.

Implementation and integration also were the point of the official side events like the local government session. They were the point of so many of the innovations and examples on display at the Ubuntu Village and the WaterDome.

Many Canadians came here to show how we are helping to create the roadmap I talked about, piece by piece. We had a strong presence from Canadian businesses that are using innovative ideas and investing in a cleaner, healthier future. We had provinces and territories, Aboriginal leaders, municipalities, community-based organizations and many others who demonstrated their own contributions.

They came to learn from others and to build partnerships, so we can all fill in more pieces of the roadmap to the future.

The Government of Canada came to WSSD with our own specific objectives.

The Prime Minister pointed out in his address to the plenary that our goal was, "to achieve a global consensus on the concrete steps we must take together to fulfill our most fundamental shared duty: creating a cleaner and healthier world for our children and for generations to come."

Those three elements: "Concrete steps", a "shared duty" and a "cleaner and healthier world" drove our efforts here in Johannesburg.

WSSD achieved what we hoped it would. WSSD was a success.

Now I should turn to some of the highlights of the Summit.

Addressing the Development Priorities

I want to begin with the international development aspects the WSSD agenda.

I want to pay particular attention to a new and crucially important factor that has emerged in the past two years – the visionary leadership of key African heads of state, with our host, President Mbeki, central to this effort.

These leaders have demonstrated a commitment to one of the keys to sustainable development – good domestic governance and respect for the rule of law.

Prime Minister Chrétien, as you know, is devoting his year as G8 chair to support this effort and ensure it becomes broadly entrenched as a pillar of development and poverty eradication.

I say poverty eradication because it has been a fundamental theme to this conference. A focus on good governance, partnerships and country-driven approaches that respond to local priorities and perspectives are at the heart of the work we have been engaged in over the past 10 days.

So has the focus on impediments to development, particularly agricultural subsidies. We took a step forward in agreeing on the need for action in the Doha round of talks through the World Trade Organization.

Making Sustainable Development a Reality on the Ground

A major element in our expectations for WSSD was making sustainable development a reality on the ground. And that often means partnerships, as I said that the beginning of my remarks.

There are still people who see every issue in terms of what governments should do and what government should make others do.

They want governments way out in front, dragging others along – like it or not.

The truth is governments are part of a dynamic trio with the private sector and the non-governmental sector. Everyone in this trio has good, innovative ideas, energy, commitment and financial and human resources to put to the task.

For example, the strong involvement of Canadian businesses here shows how much they have become part of the solution through innovations, investments and partnerships.

Indeed, so much of what we accomplished was in the new partnerships that were launched and the experiences and innovations that people shared.

The Prime Minister announced that Canada will extend our Sustainable Cities Initiative. Canadian partners will expand their work with partners in cities in developing countries and Central and Eastern Europe to identify and act on local sustainability priorities.

My colleague, Minister Whelan announced that Canada would contribute to a number of partnerships, especially in Africa, aimed at sustainable development and poverty reduction. She pledged our support for sustainable development initiatives in the Nile Basin on for agricultural projects, for example.

I helped to announce a partnership with the United States, other developed countries, a number of developing countries and other partners for improved air quality in developing countries.

And if you went to the Ubuntu Village or the WaterDome, you had a chance to see an incredible range of projects.

For example, there was a children’s playground ride, the kind that kids push to get going then they jump on as it spins, that also pumps water. Kids playing can pump the same amount of water it would take a woman half a day to get.

Canadian municipalities were here showing how they are moving to cleaner energy. We had people showing innovative approaches to natural resources.

Integrating Health and Environment

I want to underline that many of the practical results of WSSD integrated actions on the environment with actions to improve the health of people.

But those commitments only work if we have the science and the tools to deliver.

So, we saw a range of partnerships that will put the tools in place to deliver on those commitments. We agreed on tools to help countries and communities deal with their health and environment priorities.

For example, Canada provided $3 million to launch a new partnership to improve knowledge and understanding about the links between the health of the environment and the health of people. The impact will be better policies and more effective actions.

Canada also increased support for the UNEP Global Environment Monitoring System (GEMS) water program, headquartered in Burlington, Ontario by $1.5 million over three years. The result will be improved water quality monitoring and assessment in many countries.

These and other outcomes built on the work Canada helped to lead well before the Summit such as the meeting of the Health and Environment Ministers of the Americas in Ottawa in March and the G8 Environment Ministers meeting in Banff in April.

Strengthening the Environmental Pillar of Sustainable Development

The third area of results that I want to mention was our work to strengthen the environmental pillar of sustainable development.

We have seen growing attention to the need to take the environment into account in development.

African leaders specifically highlighted this in their New Partnership for Africa’s Development last year, because they recognize the price to be paid for environmental degradation for their peoples.

We addressed a long-standing issue when Canada played a major role in working out a deal on biological diversity. The first part is to start work towards an international regime on how to ensure an appropriate sharing of the benefits of the genetic diversity of the world’s plants and how to ensure access to that diversity.

The second part was a target of 2010 to get a significant reduction in the current rate of biodiversity loss. We are very pleased with these outcomes.

That decision fits with the Prime Minister’s announcement in his WSSD address that we will add new national parks and new marine conservation areas as we work to complete our national park system and meet our commitments on protected areas.

We also got agreement on how to build a stronger voice for the environment in the United Nations system – including a stronger United Nations Environment Programme.

For our part, Canada more than doubled our annual contribution to UNEP to help it play the role our environment needs.

Human Rights

There was much more that the Government of Canada did here and that Canadians did here. But I want to close with one last item – respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Canada faced stiff opposition and procedural game-playing on this issue until early on the final morning of the Summit. But we succeeded.

Human rights are a cornerstone of the UN Charter. As the Prime Minister said in his plenary address, they are a fundamental pillar of sustainable development. This applies across the board. In the case of access to health services, there was a particular poignancy to getting it right.

We were determined that this Summit would not become the one where the rollback of human rights began.

I am proud of the role Canada played in ensuring all the nations of the world, in the end, were able to mobilize around a consensus protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms. That consensus is a foundation of all our efforts to implement and integrate sustainable development through concrete actions.

It was the right note to end our negotiations and finalize the work of a successful Summit.