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Monitoring The UN > The UN and Sustainable Development Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE)Established in 1947, the Economic Commission for Europe is a Regional Commission of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. It consists of 55 members, including Canada and the United States, and meets yearly in Geneva. Intersessional periods are taken up with intergovernmental discussions through sub-bodies of the Commission, working groups, committees and sub-committees. The latest meeting of the ECE, its fifty-fourth session, was held on 3-6 May 1999. Since the end of the Cold War, the ECE has worked toward the integration of the former Soviet bloc countries into the mainstream of the European economy, including assistance in bringing their policies in line with ECE accomplishments in the field of co-operation. Economic development and prosperity for the entire region is promoted through the establishment of common methods, policies and concerted action. The Commission's overall aim is standardization in a wide range of areas, from road signs to waste management and energy efficiency. Central to this is the recognition that economic development, in the older market economies and those in transition, must be environmentally sustainable.1 The ECE has assumed a significant, even leading, role in global efforts to bring about sustainable development. As early as the 1960s, it had become obvious that such concentrated economic and industrial activity as is found in a densely populated region like Europe held the potential for severe environmental degradation.2 By the 1990s, the Commission, and its related organizations, had to their credit an impressive array of environmentally-oriented international conventions designed to alleviate, even reverse, environmental damage resulting from economic processes and to contribute to making future regional economic development sustainable.3 Principal Sub-Bodies of the ECE:
These bodies determine the general direction and emphasis of the Commission's work. They all, too, incorporate environmental awareness into their work.4 The Economic Commission for Europe was created by the United Nations with a view to providing the countries of Europe with a co-operative medium for the restoration and rehabilitation of economies and nations torn apart by six years of war.5 It was originally seen as a temporary measure in response to a crisis, but the Commission's evident success and usefulness led to its gaining permanent status in 1951. Henceforth, the ECE would not only rebuild what the past had shattered; it would assist in constructing a new future based on co-operation, shared goals and integration.6 In its early years, the ECE focused on issues related to the basic needs of reconstruction. Supplies of such commodities as coal and gas, timber and steel for construction, and electrical power had to be secured. Housing had to be restored or provided anew, as did transportation facilities for people and goods. Disrupted and distorted trade and agriculture had to be put back on course. With time and experience, the Commission moved from recovery to active, long-term development. From the late 1960s, however, it was clear that this project would have to take account of environmental costs. The first concrete reflection of this realization was an international agreement on water conservation. The environment was firmly on the agenda by the 1970s. The rapid post-war, industrially-based economic expansion of the developed world, led by ECE members, was giving rise to unforeseen complications. The effects of industrial emissions, water and air pollution and resource stress were being felt. In an area like Europe, where economic activity was intense, and so many countries shared a limited area, problems like air and water pollution became common. The response, too, had to be common. The countries of the ECE region would have to work together if environmental degradation and unwise resource use was not going to endanger everyone in the region and impact on the opportunities available to future generations. Fortunately, co-operative, co-ordinated policy was the ECE's raison d'etre.7 In 1971, a "Senior Adviser Body on Environmental Problems" was set up, and in 1975, a seminar on economic development and the environment was held in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The same year, a meeting of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) in Helsinki, Finland provided encouragement to the integration of environmental prerogatives into economic policy-making. In 1979, a "Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution" was signed in Geneva, the purpose of which was the monitoring of pollution emissions in the ECE region. Over the next two decades a number of protocols to this convention strengthened its provisions, and addressed new circumstances and increasing knowledge of the various toxic substances that made up air pollution.8 Following the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) in the late 1980s, the ECE and the region made concerted efforts to integrate the sustainable development awareness promoted by that commission into its policies and programmes. In the wake of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Agenda 21 implementation in the region was integrated into the ECE's oversight role.9 The Commission and its related bodies' work in the area of environmental protection grew apace in the 1990s, covering air and water pollution, energy use, the protection of bio-diversity, the regulation of transport of dangerous goods, waste management, the environment of human settlements, climate change, and even tourism.10 Four more multilateral environment conventions were prepared:
In 1997 the ECE set out a Plan of Action which would provide a "new thrust for ECE work in the years ahead," and determined that the environment was to be "a strategic area of work" within the Plan.12 The ECE and Sustainable Development: The ECE's efforts to promote environmentally sustainable development are based on a number of complementary elements. The first element is the work of the Committee on Environmental Policy, a sub-organ of the ECE that oversees measures for co-operation between the countries of the region in the interest of addressing environmental problems, actual and potential. This Committee has a policy and review function in support of the ECE and aims to further the implementation of Agenda 21 and actively address and redress environmental damage in the region. It is also responsible for the drafting of international conventions. Linked to this and also part of the overall environmental response strategy is the "Environment for Europe" process, a region-wide commitment to ensuring environmentally sustainable patterns of economic activity. The Committee on Environmental Policy has supervisory authority in this "process" and works to monitor its progress and to gather knowledge toward new or strengthened international agreements based on its findings. The Committee on Environmental Policy has an additional area of concern; it is responsible for the Environment Performance Reviews, a monitoring activity created to watch how member states are implementing Agenda 21, implementing the international conventions, and adjusting to sustainable development.13 United Nations Economic
Commission for Europe (UN/ECE) The UN/ECE site is fairly extensive and informative, if not always as up-to-date as might be hoped. The address: http://www.unece.org will provide a home page with clear links to information on the workings and structure of the ECE and to the environmental aspects of the Commission's work. A Calendar of up-coming meetings (1999) of the various organizations associated with the ECE can be found at: http://www.unece.org/meetings/meetgen.htm. The list is broken down by month. A full list of the ECE member countries can be found at: http://www.unece.org/oes/members.htm Bibliography: UN/ECE. The Economic Commission for Europe in the Age of Change. New York and Geneva: United Nations, 1998. UN/ECE. The Economic Commission for Europe, 1947-1987. New York: United Nations, 1987. United Nations. Everyone's United Nations. New York: United Nations, 1970. UN/ECE. The ECE and Sustainable Development: Our Contribution to a Sustainable Future. New York: United Nations, 1990. ECE Highlights. This is a periodical bulletin which provides up-to-date information on the activities and concerns of the ECE. The latest issue came out in May 1999. |
