Towards implementation of Agenda 21

The CSD (Commission for Sustainable Development) is currently in session for its ninth formal meeting, which commenced on 16 April and is due to end on 30 April 2001, at the United Nations headquarters in New York. The CSD was established as a result of the UNCED (UN Conference on Environment and Development), which was held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. The purpose of the CSD is to follow the directions set by the UNCED, enhance international cooperation, and rationalize intergovernmental decision-making capacity. The main document agreed on at Rio was Agenda 21, which essentially provides a blueprint for sustainable development for the world. The CSD is attempting to see that Agenda 21 is implemented at the local, national, regional, and international levels. Some powers, which were signatories to Agenda 21 in Rio, have been making an attempt to see that this document is renegotiated next year at Johannesburg where a summit is to take place to discuss Rio after 10 years of that historic event. The ninth session of the CSD session would, among other things, focus on energy and the atmosphere. Against the backdrop of the United States? negative position on the Kyoto Protocol, the outcome of CSD-9 would be very important, and would be reported on in these columns two weeks from now.