Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Food for Thought...

Africa and Water Management

There has been progress in improving water management in Africa, but challenges remain. The Global Public Policy Network has produced a paper outlining issues facing Africa in improving water and sanitation and drawing on the outcomes of international process enhancing the work on water and sanitation.

By: Felix Dodds, Stakeholder Forum

A Stakeholder Forum report prepared in preparation for this year’s CSD and UNEP GMEF looked at the issue of the ratification of five key Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs), known by some as the Rio Conventions. The research showed that a number of countries are stalling on their environmental commitments.

The Report was presented in a Global League Table based around a football analogy with a Premiership, First Division, Second Division etc. It ranked countries according to their commitment to five of the Rio MEAs. Scoring for the MEA League Table was based on a country’s commitment to each convention. It awarded a country one point for signing a treaty and two further points for ratifying a treaty. It also penalized countries one point if they had not signed a treaty.

The five MEAs in question are the:

(1) Bio-Safety Protocol, (2) Kyoto Protocol, (3) Rotterdam Convention on the International Trade of Hazardous Chemicals, (4) Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, (5) The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea – in particular the agreement for the implementation of the provisions of the convention relating to the conservation and management of straddling fish stocks and highly migratory fish stock.

The League Table is an interesting way of showing the present state of affairs. We hope it will act as an impetus for countries to ratify conventions. Or to, where needed, seek financial support from the international community to enable them to ratify and implement the conventions.

Topping the League Table, hereby constituting the Premier League, are the European Community and New Zealand, each with 15 points. China and Canada follow shortly behind, with 13 points. Australia and Iceland both trail with 9 points. Playing in the Division Four League are the United States and Myanmar, both with only 5 points. The United States’ low score is attributed to the fact that, although it has signed the MEAs in question, none have been ratified into legally binding law.

Turkey and Serbia, both candidate countries for EU membership, scored 3 and 5 points respectively, revealing a concerning discrepancy between their reluctance to commit to MEAs and the EU’s clear prioritising of international environmental law. By contrast, Romania, which entered the EU in January 2007, has signed and ratified all 5 MEAs.

The full findings can be found on the Stakeholder Forum website.

The need for international co-operation on environmental issues, including adherence to binding international law was emphasized by the publication of UNEP’s fourth Global Environment Outlook report (GEO-4) in October last year. The GEO 4 report stated that issues such as the loss of biodiversity, over-fishing, climate change and the persistence of air and water pollutants, if not addressed adequately, may result in disastrous outcomes for the global community in the 21st century. Time is increasingly not on our side.

I am reminded of the quote of Martin Luther King:

“Over the bleached bones of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: too late.”