Statement by Mr. Shahras Asim, Assistant Director (United Nations), Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Agenda Item 19: Sustainable Development (New York, 1st November 2011)

Mr. Chairman,

The Pakistan delegation appreciates the excellent manner in which you are steering the work of the Second Committee of the 66th Session of the UN General Assembly. While looking forward to further deliberations, we assure you of our fullest cooperation.

  1. You are presiding over this Committee amidst immense socio-economic and political transformation that is taking place in the world. At the same time – as the UN Secretary General presciently puts it – the birth of the seven billionth inhabitant of our planet provides another important sign that meeting the needs of the global population exacerbates pressure on the ecological resources. Two competing concerns are taking center stage in the global discourse i.e. accelerating the pace of productive economic expansion and decelerating the pace of exploitation of the natural capital of the globe. Under these circumstances, the need for enhancing sustainable development becomes crucial. In fact, we believe that the need for promoting sustainable development has never been greater than any other juncture in human history.

Mr. Chairman,

  1. The global economic fragility should encourage greater collaboration and cooperation. Ironically, the opposite is true. The Doha Development Round is facing paralysis. Efforts to bury the Kyoto Protocol are on the rise. Industrialized countries –historically responsible for anthropogenic impact on climate – are simply refusing to give up their life style and to undertake deeper emission cuts. In addition, financing for development is a virtual trickle.

Mr. Chairman,

  1. Let me now highlight Pakistan’s perspective on some important issues such as climate change and sustainable development, which we will be dealing with collectively during this session.
  2. Pakistan supported the decisions adopted at Cancun during the 16th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). An agreed outcome can, however, only come about if we focus negotiations on not only operationalizing the Cancun Decisions but also addressing the unresolved issues such as flow of finance, deeper mitigation commitments from the industrialized world and most importantly, the future of the Kyoto Protocol.
  3. Pakistan is particularly concerned at the uncertainty surrounding the future of the Kyoto Protocol, which is destabilizing the carbon market and the Clean Development Mechanism process as well as the future or even the very existence of the Adaptation Fund. We should not postpone addressing these critical issues any further and reach agreed decisions during the 17th Conference of Parties at Durban in December this year.
  4. We look forward to strengthening our dialogue with South Africa on the nature and shape of the outcome at the Durban Conference.

Mr. Chairman,

  1. The forthcoming United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+ 20) is another major opportunity to forge a collective response to the development challenges that a majority of the developing countries are facing amid economic uncertainty, ecological fragility and growing population concerns.
  2. Pakistan remains open to delineating “Green Economy”. We believe that the pace and extent of greening economies must be voluntary, based on national circumstances and should only be articulated in full conformity with the Rio principles particularly the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.

Mr. Chairman,

  1. While actual negotiations are due to begin early next year, discussions on articulating green economy have, thus, far laid considerable emphasis on national actions on reducing the intensity of carbon usage and shifting the economy on a more sustainable path through reallocation of development finance, changes in market incentives, internalization of social and environmental externalities as well as evolving new regulations, policies, and incentives.
  2. Notwithstanding the importance of national actions, we believe that conducive conditions are key to generating economic space for actions at the national level. They also entail evolving and reconfiguring international rules and mechanisms in:
    • access to and diffusion of technology;
    • access to sustainable energy for all and;
    • provision of financial and technical resources and support.
  1. In the above context, we propose an agreement on “green policy space” – as a part of green economy articulation – for necessary adjustments in the international economic arrangements and regimes to achieve green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication. These include:
    • Reorienting Intellectual property regime towards diffusion of technology as opposed to innovation alone. Private sector dependent technological diffusion model should be reviewed at appropriate forums with a view to evolving a process for rapid diffusion of technologies, which meets the public purpose of sustainable development and climate change.
    • Granting greater flexibility to developing countries in multilateral trading rules by limiting trade dispute actions on policies that promote green industries in the developing countries.
    • Evolving a UN System-wide response for the availability of international financial and technical support in financing green start-up and existing industrial sectors. This would entail establishing a sustainable development funding mechanism and/or developing synergies with existing or future financial arrangements and the Rio+20 process.
    • Enabling and evolving international financial arrangements to help produce the necessary decline in the global price of these technologies to make them universally affordable in one to two decades as outlined by the IPCCC. Such arrangements include globally funded guarantees, or price supports (e.g., through a global "feed in tariffs" program), to subsidize investment in the developing countries and accelerate movement towards green economy.
  1. An agreement at Rio also hinges on a viable reconfiguration of the institutional arrangements needed to meet the challenge of sustainable development. The institutional setup has not been in sync with the needs. We, therefore, believe that the new institutional setup must perform three main functions: promotion of norms, implementation and compliance.
  2. Pakistan is of the view that design of the institutional framework should follow the functions we wish to assign. In this context the three principles or functions should be represented by three distinct international UN entities.
  3. Pakistan attaches great importance to the role and mandate of the UN Environmental Programme, which in our view should perform the norm setting in the case of the environmental pillar and on forging linkages with the other two pillars and the International organizations and programmes in evolving sustainable development strategies. In this regard following changes in the institutional design of the UNEP would be vital:
    • Do away with fragmentation and consolidate MEAs under the rubric of the UNEP;
    • evolve a platform for an engagement with international entities dealing with other pillars with a view to ensuring coherence between the environmental and the other pillars. The UNEP could be given the mandate to integrate environment and development as one of its core businesses;
    • evolve a strong platform for engagement with the civil society;
    • strengthen existing arrangements for UNEP’s engagement with the private sector towards the implementation of sustainable development objectives and;
    • provide additional and predictable sources of funding to the organization in pursuing the normative development.
  1. Secondly, reviewing the mandate of the UNDP. A new institutional reconfiguration and consolidating on the gains made thus far through a strong UN led infrastructure. To this end, we propose that Rio+20 must review the mandate and role of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to act as the lead agency in the implementation of the sustainable development at the national level in close collaboration with the UNEP.
  2. Thirdly, we should strengthen the monitoring capacity of the CSD to emerge as one of the central institutions undertaking review of the commitments and actions towards the implementation of sustainable development along the lines of the ILO Committee on the Application of Standards or WTO’s Trade policy review. Transforming CSD into a higher body under the UN General Assembly could also provide necessary impetus towards monitoring the implementation. It is, though, crucial that such reconfiguration of CSD mandate should have firm support from all multilateral organizations dealing with the three pillars particularly MDBs and IFIs.
  3. Pakistan assures our Brazilian hosts of our firm resolve to make Rio + 20 another watershed in sustainable development.

Mr. Chairman,

  1. Two of the biggest challenges for Pakistan in its quest for sustainable development are Land degradation and desertification. Land degradation corrupts ecosystem functions and services. It upsets traditional land management practices, forces migration of people and compels them to compete for scarce natural resources especially in the poor developing countries. The situation is compounded by the climate change dimension. Desertification poses a serious challenge to sustainable development efforts and complicates our poverty eradication efforts.
  2. In the context of desertification and land degradation, Pakistan is vulnerable to basin degradation, water pollution, depleting soil fertility, degrading rangelands and encroaching deserts. Around 80% of our land is either arid or semi arid. As a predominantly agricultural country, more than two-thirds of Pakistan’s 180 million-population depend for their livelihoods on dry land which is fed by a single river system i.e. Indus. Of 79.6 million hectares of total land in Pakistan, 62.4 million is susceptible to desertification. 60% of Pakistan is classified as rangeland, 48% of which has been degraded already.
  3. Pakistan launched a National Programme of Action on Desertification in 2002 with assistance from the United Nations Environment Programme and the United Nations Commission for Asia and the Pacific. In 2008, with help from UNCCD, UNDP and the GEF, the Government of Pakistan launched a multi-million dollar Programme on Sustainable Land Management (SLM), which has now moved into its second phase after successfully completing the first. Today, I will recount some of the lessons that we have drawn from the implementation of this Programme.
    • First, in the area of policy, we have learnt that a renewed emphasis is needed on redrawing rules on uncultivated land.
    • Second, there is an absence of coordination and cohesion between the policies adopted by various public sector organizations at the federal level as well as between the federation and the provinces. This must be improved.
    • Third, vulnerability of the poor to environmental and climatic hazards is on the rise.
    • Finally, the project has underlined the need for establishing regional centers of excellence that would demonstrate the economic, social and environmental benefits of community regulated land use and promote the involvement of stakeholders.

Mr. Chairman,

  1. Despite the adoption of the Barbados Plan of Action and subsequent strategy to implement the Plan, the Small Island Developing States have continued to face challenges in its implementation. While, these challenges reflect the structural disadvantages and special characteristics of SIDS, the situation is compounded by the ongoing global financial crisis, food, energy and price volatility and growing threat that climate change poses to these states. We strongly support efforts at substantive consideration of their concerns in order to ensure an effective implementation of the BPOA.
  2. Energy is the lifeline for economic growth and development. The continuing volatility of fuel prices and conventional energy’s deep carbon footprint together with close nexus between water, energy, and food security has brought energy access and energy security issues into an even sharper focus. Pakistan welcomes the emphasis laid by the UN Secretary General in forging the Energy Action Group.
  3. For many developing countries, the absence of modern energy services is one of the main barriers in their quest for achieving the sustainable development objectives.
  4. To-date, the so-called growth in renewable energy technologies has not been balanced. Most of the growth, as the UNSG himself points out, is taking place in developed countries and in some developing countries with large emerging economies. Many poor countries with large rural populations have seen only relatively low growth in the use and commercialization of renewable energy technologies. The Secretary General’s report also points out that new renewable sources of energy, such as onshore wind, geothermal, small hydropower and biomass, are now becoming competitive in some world regions. However, much remains to be done. Deployment of renewable technologies on the one hand, requires enacting environment at the national level and on the other the need for an international funding mechanism, which would help reduce the cost of technology.
  5. Pakistan would particularly like to highlight the link between energy and poverty. We are of the view that global efforts need to be designed in a manner that covers the cost above the maximum affordable threshold. In a world where more than a billion people survive on US $ 1.25 a day, we cannot expect them to spend more than 3 to 5 cents a day on their energy needs. Unless the price of renewable sources is brought down to meet the expectations of poor people, we can not expect this challenge to be met anytime soon.

Mr. Chairman,

  1. Before I conclude, allow me to express our full support to the Sustainable Mountain Initiative and the need for Harmony with Nature. We look forward to constructive deliberations under this agenda item and assure you of our full support in your endeavors.

I thank you.