Venezuela
New York, 11 May 2006
VENEZUELA
Permanent Mission of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
to the United Nations
Statement by Engineer Nora Delgado, Vice Minister of Environmental
Ordination and Administration, at the High Level Segment of the 14 th
Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development
Check against delivery
Good afternoon, our for all the peoples of the world gathered at this meeting on the
occasion of the 14th Session on Sustainable Development which focused on reviewing the
progress of the commitments made in the United Nations Conference on Development
and the Environment, Rio-92 and the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held
in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2002, on energy, climate change, atmosphere and
industrial development issues .
All of them are issues closely related to development, and that we currently deemed as
unsustainable . I invite you to reflect on it . Why are we at this forum? Which are the
Member States expectations when its representatives travel from several kilometers away
and cross the borders to attend these global meetings? Our motivation is as follows :
I . We expect to make a contribution in the search for solutions to save the Planet,
since it is giving signs of being threatened to destroy . If we keep on living as we
are living nowadays we will not be able to guarantee its survival,
2. What are these signs? Climate change, pollution, natural disasters which pose a
threat against life,
3. What happened and why it has happened? We think that the development model
imposed by capitalism to the people of the world has led to the destruction of our
global home, the Earth . A model which exacerbates an exaggerated consumerism,
a proof of it is the increasing demand for energy .
4. And what to do to prevent its destruction? As President Hugo Rafael Chavez Fr as
said on the occasion of the World Summit On Sustainable Development held in
Johannesburg in 2002, " ...there cannot be development without humanism . We
are being discussing these problems for more than 30 years and we could even
spend 40 years more without making any progress toward the sustainability of our
planet..."
Mr. President,
While we continue to live immersed in a society who places consumption in the top of his
scale of values, a major energy squandering, dependency on motorized transportation, a
polluted industrial park which has made millions of citizens to breathe polluted air and
has caused devastating natural disasters, we cannot make any progress on sustainable
development.
Venezuela continues to call to change the neo-liberal development model . We have
initiated the construction of a new development model environmentally sustainable, a
socialist model on sustainable development that besides the central participation of
communities makes possible the design of productive projects . A model based on the
respect for the potential environmental characteristics of every geographical region in our
country. Our Bolivarian Constitution highlights the coresponsibility of both the State and
communities in the preservation of our environmental patrimony .
Likewise, the revolutionary Government of Venezuela is making important progress in
the implementation of a new mechanism for cooperation, the so-called the Bolivarian
Alternative for the Americas (BAA),based on the core principles of solidarity and
complementarily of the countries in relation to the fair and democratic use of their own
resources. We hope that this newly initiative will become the engine to ensure the
reductions of socioeconomic asymmetries and a fairer and more just society .
Currently, we are engaged in the consolidation of PETROAMERICA, a proposal for
energetic integration embraced within the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas
(BAA), in which converged three Sub - regional initiatives, namely PETROSUR,
PETROCARIBE and PETROANDINA, which are beneficial for South, Central
American and the Caribbean region .
Thanks to this initiative, Venezuela was able to help and express its solidarity to our
brotherly country of the United States of America during the tragedy of Hurricane
Katrina. Alike, we could also mention the assistance provided by supplying free oil for
heating to deprived sectors of the population .
Mister President,
Venezuela, in only seven years of Bolivarian revolution, is able to show important social,
environmental and economic achievements . Recently, Venezuela was declared by
UNESCO to be illiteracy - free territory . More than the 70 per cent of the population is
entitled to receive free medical assistance. Unemployment has been significantly reduced
by 9 per cent as a result of the creation of more that 700,000 job opportunities . Also, we
acknowledged the rights of our indigenous people by delivering to them the ownership of
more than 1,976,000 acres of land that originally and ancestrally belonged to them .
In relation to energetic issues, we account on an electric coverage of more than 90 per
cent, the highest rate in Latin America and the Caribbean, form which the hydraulic
sources generate the 75 per cent of the electricity consumed in the country.
It is also important to underscore the entire elimination of lead in gasoline distributed
across the country; the construction of an electric railroad system,
And the adoption of a productive reforest national plan in 49, 400 acres of forests .
Mr. President
The solution for the problematic situation on climate change should be based not only in
the search for new energy sources but on the commitment of developed countries
responsible for the strong emissions of `greenhouses gases' by implement mitigation
plans.
We denounce that the oil producing countries are being subjected to manipulation while
associating the oil prices as to aggravating poverty, without analyzing the real cause of
the problem . Let's find out its roots on 'the neo-liberal development model and in the
financial adjustment programs . imposed and in the war .
Mr. President,
The Bolivarian Government claims for the sovereign rights of the countries to decide
over the sustainable use and management of both their natural resources and their
energetic and environmental policies .
Unfortunately, we are being bad called developing countries since we are being
compared to a capitalist development model, destructive of the Planet . This is not the
model that we want to follow. If this is the only way for us to reach development, we
refuse to choose this option . To that end, we are convinced that there is a different
alternative, the Bolivarian, the one that connects the peoples and shade light and justice
for our men and women alike without any discrimination .
Mr. President, Delegates : Let's save the Planet
Thank you
VENEZUELA
Permanent Mission of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
to the United Nations
Statement by Engineer Nora Delgado, Vice Minister of Environmental
Ordination and Administration, at the High Level Segment of the 14 th
Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development
Check against delivery
Good afternoon, our for all the peoples of the world gathered at this meeting on the
occasion of the 14th Session on Sustainable Development which focused on reviewing the
progress of the commitments made in the United Nations Conference on Development
and the Environment, Rio-92 and the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held
in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2002, on energy, climate change, atmosphere and
industrial development issues .
All of them are issues closely related to development, and that we currently deemed as
unsustainable . I invite you to reflect on it . Why are we at this forum? Which are the
Member States expectations when its representatives travel from several kilometers away
and cross the borders to attend these global meetings? Our motivation is as follows :
I . We expect to make a contribution in the search for solutions to save the Planet,
since it is giving signs of being threatened to destroy . If we keep on living as we
are living nowadays we will not be able to guarantee its survival,
2. What are these signs? Climate change, pollution, natural disasters which pose a
threat against life,
3. What happened and why it has happened? We think that the development model
imposed by capitalism to the people of the world has led to the destruction of our
global home, the Earth . A model which exacerbates an exaggerated consumerism,
a proof of it is the increasing demand for energy .
4. And what to do to prevent its destruction? As President Hugo Rafael Chavez Fr as
said on the occasion of the World Summit On Sustainable Development held in
Johannesburg in 2002, " ...there cannot be development without humanism . We
are being discussing these problems for more than 30 years and we could even
spend 40 years more without making any progress toward the sustainability of our
planet..."
Mr. President,
While we continue to live immersed in a society who places consumption in the top of his
scale of values, a major energy squandering, dependency on motorized transportation, a
polluted industrial park which has made millions of citizens to breathe polluted air and
has caused devastating natural disasters, we cannot make any progress on sustainable
development.
Venezuela continues to call to change the neo-liberal development model . We have
initiated the construction of a new development model environmentally sustainable, a
socialist model on sustainable development that besides the central participation of
communities makes possible the design of productive projects . A model based on the
respect for the potential environmental characteristics of every geographical region in our
country. Our Bolivarian Constitution highlights the coresponsibility of both the State and
communities in the preservation of our environmental patrimony .
Likewise, the revolutionary Government of Venezuela is making important progress in
the implementation of a new mechanism for cooperation, the so-called the Bolivarian
Alternative for the Americas (BAA),based on the core principles of solidarity and
complementarily of the countries in relation to the fair and democratic use of their own
resources. We hope that this newly initiative will become the engine to ensure the
reductions of socioeconomic asymmetries and a fairer and more just society .
Currently, we are engaged in the consolidation of PETROAMERICA, a proposal for
energetic integration embraced within the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas
(BAA), in which converged three Sub - regional initiatives, namely PETROSUR,
PETROCARIBE and PETROANDINA, which are beneficial for South, Central
American and the Caribbean region .
Thanks to this initiative, Venezuela was able to help and express its solidarity to our
brotherly country of the United States of America during the tragedy of Hurricane
Katrina. Alike, we could also mention the assistance provided by supplying free oil for
heating to deprived sectors of the population .
Mister President,
Venezuela, in only seven years of Bolivarian revolution, is able to show important social,
environmental and economic achievements . Recently, Venezuela was declared by
UNESCO to be illiteracy - free territory . More than the 70 per cent of the population is
entitled to receive free medical assistance. Unemployment has been significantly reduced
by 9 per cent as a result of the creation of more that 700,000 job opportunities . Also, we
acknowledged the rights of our indigenous people by delivering to them the ownership of
more than 1,976,000 acres of land that originally and ancestrally belonged to them .
In relation to energetic issues, we account on an electric coverage of more than 90 per
cent, the highest rate in Latin America and the Caribbean, form which the hydraulic
sources generate the 75 per cent of the electricity consumed in the country.
It is also important to underscore the entire elimination of lead in gasoline distributed
across the country; the construction of an electric railroad system,
And the adoption of a productive reforest national plan in 49, 400 acres of forests .
Mr. President
The solution for the problematic situation on climate change should be based not only in
the search for new energy sources but on the commitment of developed countries
responsible for the strong emissions of `greenhouses gases' by implement mitigation
plans.
We denounce that the oil producing countries are being subjected to manipulation while
associating the oil prices as to aggravating poverty, without analyzing the real cause of
the problem . Let's find out its roots on 'the neo-liberal development model and in the
financial adjustment programs . imposed and in the war .
Mr. President,
The Bolivarian Government claims for the sovereign rights of the countries to decide
over the sustainable use and management of both their natural resources and their
energetic and environmental policies .
Unfortunately, we are being bad called developing countries since we are being
compared to a capitalist development model, destructive of the Planet . This is not the
model that we want to follow. If this is the only way for us to reach development, we
refuse to choose this option . To that end, we are convinced that there is a different
alternative, the Bolivarian, the one that connects the peoples and shade light and justice
for our men and women alike without any discrimination .
Mr. President, Delegates : Let's save the Planet
Thank you
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