|
Report from the United Nations
Commission on Sustainable Development In May
1994 Australia's Environment Minister, John Faulkner, and I missed each other by a day or
so both in Washington DC where Mr Faulkner visited but not quite in time to speak himself
at the International Lead Abatement Conference, to which he was invited, and in New York,
where Mr Faulkner arrived soon after the discussions on lead were completed at the United
Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (UN CSD).
I was one of three people chosen by AECLP from among the delegates of
the International Lead Abatement Conference to take the conference conclusions to the CSD
meeting, there to join with representatives from international environment groups in
lobbying the CSD delegates from every country, to support proposals which would bring
about positive lead abatement activities throughout the world, and specifically, the
worldwide accelerated phase out of lead in petrol and food can solder.
Due to the total lack of input from the Australian representatives
during the debate, despite my pleas, and to some confusion about how heavy a drain on the
resources of the World Bank such a leaded petrol phase-out would be, the statement that
was eventually passed by the delegates contained only general notions about lead
abatement. Still, when you consider that not a single other toxin was mentioned
individually in the agreed statements, and that no other specific action was debated, the
exercise was not an entire waste of effort. |
