Minister vows stronger action at UN meeting
Minister vows stronger action at UN meeting
Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali
State Minister for the Environment Nabiel Makarim vowed to take a more active lead in the discussions and negotiations during the fourth preparatory committee meeting on sustainable development to ensure the interests of civil society and the Group of 77 developing countries (G-77) are heard and duly noted.
Nabiel said the Chairman's Text must accommodate the interests of developing countries, not only those of developed countries.
"I have told my staff to take stronger action, to be more vocal in the deliberations (of the Chairman's Text)," he promised a group of international NGOs during an informal meeting here.
Various NGOs have called on Indonesia to take the leadership during the preparatory committee meeting, arguing that the Chairman's Text was on the side of industrialized countries.
The Chairman's Text -- expected to be endorsed by Heads of State in Johannesburg in August -- is a plan of action for countries to curb the overexploitation of the earth's natural resources and to pursue sustainable development.
In a press briefing with the media earlier in the day, Nabiel said that taking charge during the negotiations was not an easy job because, as a member of G-77, Indonesia must abide by the decisions of the group led by Venezuela.
"Formally we already have a leader, that is Venezuela, and we have to go through them. But we will be more active in the negotiations," he said, after meeting with leaders of Greenpeace.
Greenpeace called on the Indonesian government to take stronger leadership in the meetings, and work with sustainable development-friendly governments from Asia, Africa and Latin America, as well as build alliances with friendly European countries.
"We, together with other NGOs (agree) that Indonesia has to take strong leadership. We have two weeks left and we don't have a lot of time to salvage what is left," said Greenpeace's Southeast Asian campaign director Athena Ronquillo.
Greenpeace and other NGOs are mainly concerned with the efforts of industrialized countries to leave out time-bound measures and definite targets in the Chairman's Text.
Nabiel acknowledged there was a lot of disappointment over the deliberation process of the Chairman's Text.
"In principle, there is no difference between our (government of Indonesia) position and Greenpeace's, just the strategy and how to reach what we want," he said, adding that some of the issues that were of greatest concern to both Indonesia and Greenpeace include conservation and the eradication of poverty.
Separately, the head of the Indonesian delegation in the senior official meeting, Makarim Wibisono, said that member countries of G-77 are currently looking for common ground before presenting their views before developed countries.
"We are trying to create a coalition as broad as possible and to involve stakeholders so that we can place pressure on other delegations," he said.
He said there was still time to convince other delegates, explaining that it was too early to tell where the negotiations were heading.
"We have to wait until we're halfway through," he said. So far however, negotiations were progressing in line with the government's agenda, he said.
According to him, the Chairman's Statement contains all the key issues Indonesia hopes to get other countries to agree on.
Remi Parmentier, political director of Greenpeace, said he was encouraged to find a number of coinciding views and analysis with Indonesia.
"We will strive to build a consensus to make sure there is strong support for concrete targets with a timetable and new financial resources to achieve sustainable development," he said, adding that Greenpeace had also put forward its views with delegations from other countries, and that Indonesia, as the host country, should play a strong role in the meetings.
"We think that, perhaps, governments are blind, but they are not deaf. If we speak loud and clear they will have to listen, they will have to hear us," he said.