G8 environment ministers meet annually, on an informal basis, to discuss
common ground. This year’s meeting took place in Otsu, Japan, with climate
change and the Rio + 10 conference at the top of the agenda.
The ministers’ joint statement, issued at the end of the meeting, mentioned the Kyoto Protocol, including the following:
We confirm our commitment to ensure that results achieved at the Sixth
Meeting of the Council of the Parties help promote the ratification
and entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol as soon as possible. For most
countries, this means no later than 2002 … We recommit ourselves to taking
significant domestic actions to tackle global climate change. We confirm
that the Kyoto Mechanisms will be supplemental to domestic actions
EU Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström said she was pleased with the statement on climate change: “At this point, no unanimous position could be reached on the EU’s call for entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol by 2002
at the latest. The EU Ministers and the Commissioner emphasised again the
importance of domestic measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions”.
The subject of sustainable development and the Rio + 10 conference were
priorities for discussion at the meeting. The need to decouple economic
development from unsustainable development patterns was agreed, as was the use of sustainable development indicators. “We reaffirm our Rio + 5 commitment to have in place national strategies for sustainable development by 2002,” reads the ministers’ joint statement.
The ministers are urging heads of state to attend the Rio + 10 meeting in
order to ensure that sustainable development is given global priority. “The
success of Rio + 10 is important as it will be the first comprehensive
global meeting on sustainable development in the 21st century,” states the
ministers.
The need for agreement by the end of the year on a multilateral environmental agreement on the control and phase-out of persistent organic
pollutants (see related story) was included in the meeting statement, as was
an acknowledgement that more information is needed on the impact of
endocrine disruptors (see related story) on human and animal health.