Thank you Mr Chairman.
Italy wishes to align itself with the statement made by Slovenia on behalf of the European Union.
Mr. Chairman,
the CSD16 agenda came very timely as the ongoing emergency for the food crisis has been the very issue of the works of this session. I am sure that the analysis made by many distinguished delegates will contribute and help this Commission to take relevant and consistent decisions next year at the CSD17.
In the meanwhile we also have great expectations from the UN Food Summit to be held in Rome at FAO Headquarters in a couple of weeks.
To further contribute to prepare ourselves to the next year agenda, allow me to stress some issues that we strongly believe are key in view of the CSD17 decisions.
Firstly, as a major global challenge, we believe that sustainable production of bio-fuels would mark a step forward in the fight against climate change and in ensuring food security, while contributing to shifting towards the use of sustainable energy sources. To this aim, allow me to mention the Global Bio-Energy Partnership, built upon the commitment to contribute to find the solution to those challenges. The Partnership was established to reflect the commitments taken by the G8 +5 Countries in the 2005 G8 Summit in Gleneagles, and last year was invited by the G8 Summit in Heiligendamm to continue its work on bio-fuel as a framework to enhance coordination and development of bio-energy activities at international level and to promote sharing of knowledge, technologies and skills. From last year the GBEP is also a registered CSD partnership.
Secondly Mr Chairman, we believe that CSD 16 and 17 offer a unique opportunity to talk about the integration of land degradation, desertification and drought in NSDS
and PRS as well as to address the interlinkages with water, agriculture, climate change and biodiversity. The appropriate framework to further those synergies is the UNCCD 10 Year Strategy ? recently adopted by the Conference of the Parties ? that, in our view, can also improve the UNCCD interaction with other multilateral environmental agreements.
But we need to improve the political will and to this aim we are confidently looking forward to the UNCCD High Level Dialogue that will take place in Bonn in two weeks and to which we believe that also CSD should make its contribution.
Thirdly, Italy is deeply concerned by the international emergency of the food crisis that dramatically undermines the capacity to achieve MDGs and sustainable development goals, especially in the Last Developed Countries.
Increasing migration flows due to loss of ecosystem services and to their low resilience capacity are challenges to be dealt with in the context of a sustainable development approach: we need to further explore the potential complementarities existing between development assistance, trade, environment and investment policies to combat and reduce forced migration.
Finally Mr Chairman, allow me to mention the Marrakech Process on Sustainable Consumption and Production that will be dealt by CSD cycle 2010-2011 and to which preparation Italy is participating in a substantive way.
Indeed, Italy is leading the international Task Force on Education for Sustainable Consumption, one of the seven task forces that since 2005 have been launched to support the process.
We do believe that the CSD is the most appropriate international forum where the interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary contents of SCP and of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) can be emphasized.
Rural development, Land, Desertification, Drought and Africa represent crucial clusters of action where initiatives promoting SCP and education and training could represent an added value to ensure the effectiveness of sectoral policies.
Some international processes, in particular at regional level, are working in this direction, as for instance the efforts carried out by member countries within the UNECE region to develop ESD as an accompanying measure to sectoral policies. In our opinion regional initiatives, as those to which I have just made reference, could contribute to improve the work of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development by sharing their initiatives and experiences with other regions and countries and by exploring new areas of action in which to apply such approach.
These are in our view, Mr Chairman, examples of policy areas that shall contribute to a successful CSD17.
Thank you.
