Foreign
Policy: Sustainable development |
Sustainable development |
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Sustainable development has been a concern of the federal and regional governments for years. After all, economics, social policy and environmental protection should work together as mutually supporting components in sustainable development.
The World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, September 2002) complemented the Millennium Development Goals from 2000 with a number of additional time-bound objectives (e.g. minimising the negative effects of chemicals by 2020). In the EU, Belgium will pursue efforts to implement the Summit's decisions, in connection with the EU Sustainable Development Strategy (http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eussd/).
A crucial point in the implementation of Johannesburg is the work programme of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD). The CSD's 2008-2009 cycle (www.un.org/esa/sustdev/index.html) will focus on agriculture, rural development, drought, desertification and Africa as well as cross-cutting issues such as financing, gender and so on.
At federal level in Belgium, the second Federal Plan for Sustainable Development 2004-2008 (www.poddo.be/NL/documenten_en_publicaties) helps tie commitments made at Johannesburg to various Federal Public Services, including FPS Foreign Affairs. For instance, external activities relating to health and the environment, biodiversity and forests, energy and climate change, a sustainable trade policy and corporate social responsibility.
FPS Foreign Affairs (like other FPSs) has a Sustainable Development Unit, in addition to the older Sustainable Development Department, to oversee the implementation of the provisions of this plan within FPS Foreign Affairs.
Multilateral environmental agreements are key tools for protecting the environment worldwide. These agreements have various objectives, including protecting biodiversity and ecosystems, combating pollution of surface waters and the atmosphere, stopping climate change caused by greenhouse gases, and minimising the environmental impact of chemicals and waste.
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (http://unfccc.int/2860.php) and the associated Kyoto protocol, with required limitations on emissions of greenhouse gases, seek to provide an answer to the challenge of global warming. Negotiations are currently under way on new objectives for the period after 2012 when the Kyoto protocol expires. These negotiations should, in principle, be completed by the end of 2009.
The Convention on Biological Diversity (http://www.biodiv.org/default.shtml) seeks to stop the decline in the number of species of plants and animals. Negotiations are currently under way on a future system of access to and the fair division of natural genetic resources (in developing countries). Also important for biodiversity are the many agreements that are supposed to protect biotopes, such as the marine environment, wetlands, forests and cross-border nature reserves, as well as the agreement on the trade in endangered plant and animal species.
The Biosafety Protocol to the agreement aims to minimise the risks of genetically modified organisms (www.cbd.int/biosafety/default.shtml).
Chemicals can pose a threat to man and the environment. Global agreements govern various areas, including the use and phasing out of health-threatening and poorly biodegradable chemicals such as persistent organic pollutants (www.pops.int/) or chemicals that harm the ozone layer (http://ozone.unep.org/index.asp).
In 2006 the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) (www.unep.org) launched a global action plan running until 2020 for a Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) http://www.chem.unep.ch/saicm/. Negotiations are now beginning on a global strategy to reduce mercury. Belgium has now taken the lead to devise international instruments governing the use of hazardous substances such as mercury and asbestos. Belgium actively supports enhancing UNEP's role. The growing number of environmental agreements and the new global environmental challenges require increasingly significant mutual political leadership and coordination, both with UNEP's activities and with the activities of the UN's specialists bodies. This means there is a need for high-level international environmental policy leadership. Belgium is a major UNEP donor.
Belgium is involved in talks on creating a United Nations Environment Organisation (UNEO). Belgium has been won over to the idea of creating the UNEO, provided that it happens gradually, that it is based on and bolstered by the current UNEP and that the UNEO's normative and especially operational ambitions in the field are well coordinated with other UN players.
Belgium views the Environment for Europe process (www.unece.org/env/efe/welcome.html) as the ideal forum in which to launch a dialogue with those countries of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia that are not part of EU enlargement on devising policy tools such as pan-European environmental agreements and environmental reporting mechanism to help integrate the environment into the various policy sectors in those countries. Some 50 countries are involved in the pan-European environmental forum. The four-yearly ministerial conference was held in Belgrade in October 2007, in connection with the pan-European environmental process. The next conference will take place in Kazakhstan in 2011.
One of the themes at this conference is the Environment and Security Initiative (www.envsec.org) run by UNEP, UNDP, NATO, OSCE in an effort to deflect potential environmental conflicts at an early stage, such as water pollution and cross-border pollution, and to encourage environmental cooperation between disputing parties so as to promote better understanding. FPS Foreign Affairs supported various ENVSEC projects, including a project relating to the Sava, a tributary to the Danube that runs through various countries of the former Yugoslavia, or a project to clean up hazardous chemical waste in Moldavia that poses a threat to the region.
A sustainable development programme has also been under way at the OECD since 2001 (www.oecd.org). Belgium advocates permanently integrating sustainable development into the OECD's activities.
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European Union |
A Constitution for the European Union |
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European Union |
An area of freedom, security and justice |
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European Union |
The European Union's external relations |
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European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) |
The European Security and Defence policy |
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North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) |
NATO |
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Non-proliferation, disarmament and arms control |
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Attempts at nuclear disarmament |
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Anti-personnel mines |
1. "New perspectives for a world without landmines" Conference organised on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (Palais d'Egmont, Brussels, 9 May 2007) |
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Sustainable development |
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Belgian science policy and space policy |
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United Nations |
Belgium under the blue flag of the United Nations |
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Subsaharan Africa |
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European Union |
Transposition of European legislation into Belgian law |
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Bilateral relations |
West European countries and North America |
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Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) |
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) |
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G7/G8 |
The G7/G8 and globalisation |
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Fight against terrorism |
Combating terrorism |
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Globalisation |
Globalisation |
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Energy |
Energy |
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International financial institutions |
International financial institutions |
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Human trafficking |
Human trafficking |
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European Union |
The Common Agricultural Policy |
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Asylum and immigration |
Asylum and immigration |
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European Union |
The Green Paper on Services of General Interest: Belgian contribution |
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European Union |
Dossier: the enlargement of the European Union |
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Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) |
Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) |
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Peace Building |
Peace building |
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Civilian crisis management |
Civilian crisis management |
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Foreign Trade |
Developments in Belgian foreign trade |
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Foreign Trade |
Powers of the federal authorities in the field of foreign trade |
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Europa commercial policy |
The Doha Development Agenda (DDA) negotiations |
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competences of an embassy |
Which are the competences of a Belgian embassy or consulate? |
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Europa commercial policy |
The general agreement on trade in services - GATS |
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Feed Rss |
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United Nations |
Belgium elected to the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs |
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United Nations |
Millennium + 5 Summit of the United Nations - Belgian policy note |
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United Nations |
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) |
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Raw materials |
Raw materials: a new situation |
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Bilateral relations |
Southeast Europe |
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Bilateral relations |
Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia |
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Belgium |
Social security |
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European Union |
European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) |
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Eurocorps |
Eurocorps |
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Protocol |
Duties of the different departments |
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Protocol |
Who can help you? |
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Protocol |
Diplomatic Corps in Belgium |
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Protocol |
Vienna Conventions |
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Protocol |
Useful links |
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European Union |
Belgian authorities in charge of the implementation of restrictive measures of the European Union |
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Anti-personnel mines |
2. Introductory remarks by Minister De Gucht at the Conference "New perspectives for a world without landmines" |
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Anti-personnel mines |
3. The Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention |
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Anti-personnel mines |
4. Belgium's role in the fight against antipersonnel mines |
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Sanctions |
Sanctions |
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Non-proliferation, disarmament and arms control |
European Regional Conference on Cluster Munitions: conference texts |
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Non-proliferation, disarmament and arms control |
Report on the Brussels European Regional Conference on Cluster Munitions |
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Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) |
Mechanisms for election observation |
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Human trafficking |
The fight against trafficking and smuggling in human beings (brochure) |
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Foreign Trade |
Business Council |
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United Nations |
Women, Peace and Security |
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United Nations |
64rd Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations : Belgian priorities |
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Haiti |
Haiti |
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