Originally published on the CGS blog on May 11, 2007.
If
you can excuse the acronym-speak in the title of this post, I hope
you’ll share my disappointment that the U.N. Commission on Sustainable
Development (CSD) is falling on hard times. The CSD is an innovative
forum that allows stakeholder groups, like women, youth, labor,
farmers, indigenous groups, and others, to participate alongside
governments and share their views on the most critical environment,
development, and economic problems that the world is facing.
I spent a few years at the CSD, as have many hard-working government
and citizen diplomats. I was sad to find out today from a friend at the
negotiations that the forum may soon be going the way of the dodo bird
and the woolly mammoth.
This year’s CSD is tasked with forging agreement on four topics:
energy for sustainable development, industrial development, air
pollution, and climate change. Negotiators were up ’till 3 a.m. last
night and, of the four topics, are only close to agreement on air
pollution.
The deadlock is so great that some delegates – including the civil
society participants who are often the most reluctant to give up hope –
are suggesting that the CSD be scrapped, its work reorganized and
streamlined into another U.N. agency.
Some countries are pushing to strengthen the United Nations
Environment Programme. Unless the CSD work migrates there – and its
unique participatory format is preserved – the recent developments are
very bad news.
To add insult to injury, pending objections from the European Union, Zimbabwe is poised to chair the CSD.
All its U.N. Ambassador could muster in response to critics of the
election was: “What has sustainable development to do with human
rights?” That’s extremely disconcerting.
SustainUS, the organization that sends U.S. youth to participate in U.N. negotiations, is maintaining a CSD blog that is well worth a read.
Here’s hoping that the CSD can be rescued – or at least thoroughly reincarnated.
Scott Paul
