Reaffirming the Environment-Development Nexus of UNCED 1992

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including the representatives of the Group of 77. Subsequently, theG77 and some of its member countries took up this point and alsoformally proposed that Agenda 21 explicitly include several specificdevelopment issues as programme areas.At the official discussions of PrepCom 3, several developing countriescriticised what they saw as the “environment bias” and the neglectof development issues in the Secretariat papers and its Agenda 21plan. In a plenary speech on 26 August, Ambassador Razali Ismailof Malaysia said there appeared to be some bias in the reports andwanted to know which consultants wrote them. Whilst some papersdealt with development issues, unfortunately these were not takenup in the Agenda 21 proposals (SUNS 28 Aug. 1991). The ten issuesidentified in the Agenda 21 matrix in the Secretariat document onAgenda 21 were all environmental in nature and the Secretariat hadalso prepared addendum papers on these topics, attached to Agenda21. However, there were no indications of Agenda 21 addendumpapers on development issues like poverty, trade and environment,commodities, technology transfer, financial resources and transnationalcompanies and restrictive business practices. He calledfor “cross-sectoral issues” to be integrated into Agenda 21. He saidunless development imperatives were met it was quite impossiblefor Third World countries to cover environmental protection. Hecited low commodity prices forcing Third World countries to exportmore raw materials thus depleting natural resources, which theywould not have to do if terms of trade were better. Also, IMF-WorldBank structural adjustment policies forced governments to cut socialexpenditure, leading to more poverty and health problems. “The rootto many environmental and health problems lies in the economicstructure, especially the inequitable international economic situation.Acts such as the Action Programme on Environment must be fullyintegrated with the Action Programme on Economic issues.”23
On 27 August, Ghana Ambassador and G77 spokesperson, EdwardKufour, warned that “if we don’t listen to each other, if those in aposition to make greater contribution stick callously and selfishly totheir privileges, come the next twenty years the representatives ofcountries with the NGOs and the press anxiously in tow, will gatherin another delightful city somewhere and continue the dialogue ofthe deaf.” (SUNS, 2 Sept. 1991). He criticised the Secretariat paperon poverty for almost exclusively focusing on national policies as thecause of poverty in the South, thus giving misleading prescriptions.He cited the importance of external factors, such as low commodityprices and debt servicing, that led developing countries to transferover $100 billion a year. “If you add to these other transfers throughtrade in services, payment for patents, loss of market access, andunfair competition through subsidised agricultural production indeveloped countries, one gets a fuller picture of the massive transferof resources from the developing to developed countries. Is it anywonder that poverty is pervasive in developing countries?” Healso criticised structural adjustment policies focusing on short-termmeasures to reduce public expenditure, thus creating economic andsocial dislocation, affecting basic services, increasing unemploymentand poverty and adding pressures on land resources. “All this hasserious implications for environmental protection since the sick, theuneducated and the poor are primarily concerned about their survivaltoday and this is the challenge UNCED faces.”Several other developing countries, including Sri Lanka, Tanzaniaand India, also complained of the lack of emphasis on developmentissues in the UNCED documents, especially Agenda 21.J.G.M. Alders of the Netherlands, speaking for the EC and itsmember states, said both poverty and affluence led to environmentaldeterioration. The rich used a disproportionate share of the world’sresources and discharged their wastes into the ecosystem. Thepoor were forced to overexploit their resource base. The Secretariat24
Page 2 and 3: Reaff irming the Environment-Develo
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Page 10 and 11: and his social contract with his fe
Page 12 and 13: Secondly, the North as a whole was
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Page 20 and 21: Ch a p t e r Th r e eINTEGRATION OF
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Page 24 and 25: the environment. It reaffirmed the
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Page 28 and 29: present; and they lobbied governmen
Page 32 and 33: documents on poverty and consumptio
Page 34 and 35: The decision also stated that Agend
Page 36 and 37: development through trade; (B) clar
Page 38 and 39: for commodities, external debt and
Page 40 and 41: Since the larger issue of redressin
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Reaffirming the Environment-Development Nexus of UNCED 1992

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