Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 356: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he will report on the recent meeting of the UN in respect of the Commission of Sustainable Development; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11716/11]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) is responsible for reviewing progress in the implementation of Agenda 21 and the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development as well as providing policy guidance to follow up the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (JPOI) at the local, national, regional and international levels. The JPOI reaffirmed that the CSD is the high-level forum for sustainable development within the United Nations system.

The 19th Session of the CSD took place in New York from 2 May to 13 May 2011. The High Level Segment of the meeting, which I attended, took place over the last three days of the Session. The themes for discussion during CSD 19 were Sustainable Consumption and Production, Waste Management, Chemicals, Transport and Mining. Unfortunately, the 19th Session did not reach an agreed outcome concerning policy recommendations on the cluster of themes concerned and was therefore adjourned. Further details on the negotiations and outcomes of the meeting are available at http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/csd/csd_csd19.shtml

I addressed the Commission during the opening of the High Level Segment in the UN General Assembly Hall on the themes of CSD 19. I also co-chaired a Ministerial level roundtable discussion on Sustainable Urban and Rural Transport and contributed to roundtable discussions on Sustainable Consumption and Production and Waste Management and Chemicals. In addition, I attended a Ministerial dialogue on moving towards sustainable development: expectations for Rio+20 (the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development), which was addressed by the Secretary General of the United Nations. I also met representatives of children and youth organisations attending CSD.

In addition to participating at the 19th Session, I also signed, on behalf of Ireland, the Nagoya Kuala Lumpur Protocol on Biosafety which provides international rules and procedure on liability and redress for damage to biodiversity resulting from genetically modified organisms. This is a supplementary protocol to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and was adopted by the Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol in October 2010. The Cartagena Protocol seeks to protect biodiversity from the potential risks arising from the trans-boundary movement of any genetically modified organisms that results from modern biotechnology and that may have an adverse effect on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity.