Mister Chair, Distinguished delegates,
Let me begin by congratulating, on behalf of the EU, the CSD18 Chair, Excellency Luis Alberto Ferrate Felice, on the outstanding work he has done to make CSD18 discussions more interactive and to guarantee a full involvement of all stakeholders.
We see the strong participation of Major groups and Stakeholders as one of the main added values of the Commission on Sustainable Development and it is therefore important to enhance all opportunities to strengthen their role within their role within the Commission?s work, by facilitating their interaction and valuing their contributions . By the same toke, partnerships and voluntary initiatives are of major importance to our work and crucial in accomplishing a thorough implementation of the Commission?s decisions.
In this sense we will be listening with great interest to the views expressed at this session on the topics of the current cycle.
The 18th session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD18) offers us an opportunity to address the issues of chemicals, waste, mining, transport and Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) in the broader international environmental agenda and to advance an integrated approach to tackling these issues ? for example stressing the linkages between chemicals and waste management policies, the need for looking at synergies of the various international processes related to chemicals, the importance of the life-cycle approach and resource and energy efficiency, as for instance in the transport and mining sector.
I am eager to hear even in more details that what are stakeholders' expectations for an outcome of CSD 18 in relation to the thematic issues of the current cycle ?
Can we take the opportunity, together with all stakeholders, to deliver a strong message on the importance of resource efficiency and an integrated approach at the policy session next year?
The Marrakech Task Forces took the lead in the elaboration of some specific elements of SCP, showing to all of us that a change to more sustainable consumption and production patterns is possible and can even be economically beneficial. Some of them are now turning into successful partnerships. But in the view of the EU this success story is not enough ? discussions last week have shown that partners are really ready to go a step further.
The spirit of the voluntary partnerships inherent to the Marrakech process should now be expanded and linked to the more formal process under the auspices of CSD. We should work towards an agreement on recommendations on this at CSD 19. This will require a certain formalization of the work initiated under the Marrakech process, and further inter-sessional work starting right after the CSD18. But more generally, we should now work towards mainstreaming SCP in the work of the whole UN system, building on the lessons learned from the Marrakech process on SCP and the experiences from many UN agencies. We also will need to organise the input from the many initiatives, processes and programmes on SCP into the preparatory process for CSD19. That will be necessary before the IPM. This method could also be used for the other themes.
Let me also highlight another successful partnership, between Asia and Europe, the SWITCH programme, which is a 90 million Euro initiative. It focuses on sustainable consumption and production (SCP) for SMEs and directly contributes to sustainable growth and the fight against
poverty. We are currently looking into the possibility of extending this program to other regions as well in case there is interest for such.
We are looking forward to continue to engaging the very fruitful dialogue with all delegations and stakeholders.
Thank you for your attention.
