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Global conference looks at Lithuania-relevant issues

Attended by the Minister of the Environment Gediminas Kazlauskas, the global United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil touched upon, among others, Lithuania-relevant issues such as modern handling of municipal waste, promoting renewable energy resources and developing forms of production that support sustainable use of natural resources.

According to the Minister, what is critical for our country, like for the rest of the EU Member States, is that the conference reached the agreement to promote transition to organic economy and to reform and reinforce the institutional structure of sustainable development on all of its three aspects: environmental protection, economics and social development. It is equally important to strengthen the environmental institutions themselves, first of all the UN Environmental Programme, that could be reorganised into a UN Environment Agency or a UN Environment Organisation.

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development is one of the biggest global fora where heads of States and Governments and representatives of NGOs are looking for ways to preserve the environment without impeding the growth of global economy. It also discusses development of organic economy and improving efficiency of UN institutions responsible for sustainable development, including their reformation.

The aim of RIO+20 is to consolidate international political commitments, assess progress and identify drawbacks and newly emerging problems. The first topic of the conference aims to urge today’s global economy that impoverishes the environment towards becoming green, i.e. environmentally friendly. This new model of economic development should promote economic growth for the benefit of all, efficient use of resources and sustainable consumption and production with the ultimate goal to improve people’s health and wellbeing and to reduce poverty. The second topic covers the international challenges of managing sustainable development. There has been a growing accord that the current UN institutions – the Sustainable Development Commission, the Environment Programme, etc., which coordinate global issues of sustainable development and environmental protection, have been facing difficulties and have not reached the objectives defined for them over their 20 years of operation. The aim is that once the institutions have been reformed on the global scale, better coordination of actions and more efficient use of financial and human resources are achieved.

Information of the Ministry of the Environment, Tel. 266 3660

22/06/2012