Fresh Resolve for
Tackling Environment
- MCED 2005 adopts Seoul Initiative on "Green Growth"


Environment ministers have agreed to push ahead with constructive plans to improve the environment and eradicate poverty through environmentally sustainable Green Growth, at the end of a Ministerial Conference on Environment and Development held in Seoul.
Some 52 countries adopted a Regional Implementation Plan for Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific (2006-2010) and the Seoul Initiative on Environmentally Sustainable Economic Growth at the Fifth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Development in Asia and the Pacific, 2005, a UNESCAP- led conference hosted by the Korean government.
"Environmentally sustainable economic growth or "Green Growth" should be promoted as a basis for improving environmental sustainability and attaining the Millennium Development Goals in the region", the ministers declared as they wrapped up a two-day ministerial conference held on March 28-29 at the Lotte Hotel in downtown Seoul.
They agreed to alter current patterns of production, consumption and distribution and promote cleaner production systems.
"I believe that this conference was an outstanding achievement to promote our efforts towards a synergy between the environment and the economy to not only the Asia Pacific region but also to the entire world", said Korean Minister of Environment Kwak Kyul-ho, also chairman of MCED 2005.
"The Seoul Initiative will help us in taking immediate action in implementing the commitments made within the framework of regional cooperation," said UNESCAP Executive Secretary Kim Hak-su. "The conference has given us several strong message that we should move away from business as usual policies and programs," said Kim.
Included in the far-reaching Regional Implementation Plan are numerous activities from promoting partnerships and economic tools to improve ecological efficiency, mobilizing technical and donor support, reviewing national laws and identifying, assessing, monitoring and building capacity to manage disaster risks.
Underpinning the plans, the Seoul Initiative contains three targets: improving environmental sustainability of economic growth, enhancing environmental performance in pollution control and ecosystem management and promoting the environment as a driver of economic growth and development. The Seoul Initiative Network on Green Growth (SINGG) will be established to keep the momentum going.
During a news conference following the end of the ministerial conference, Korean Environmental Minister Kwak described MCED 2005 as the largest-ever conference and successful one, and the Seoul conference made three achievements - ministerial declaration, regional implementation plan (RIP) and the Seoul initiative. The ministerial declaration contains ways of promoting environmentally sustainability, enhancing environmental performance, and the role of the environment as a driving force for economic growth, and disaster management strategies, while the RIP speaks about how to implement the vision and strategies, contained in the ministerial declaration. The Seoul initiative contains common programs in Asia and the Pacific for implementation of policy recommendations on Green Growth, according to the minister. UNESCAP Executive Secretary Kim was also present at the news conference.
The MCED 2005 declaration also reflected the outcome of the discussions collected during side events of the Seoul conference as the City Society Forum, the Private Sector Forum, the Eminent Scientists Symposium, and the Asia-Pacific Forum for the Environment and Development (APFED).
Minister Kwak said economic development policies, which have raised Korea to the world's 11th economic power house from a poor country of the 1960s, has imposed a burden on the environment, and MCED 2005 is significant that ?Korea is now changing to a new paradigm of integrating the economy and the environment, aimed at upgrading the peopleOs living quality and protecting public health and lives.
UNESCAP Executive Secretary Kim said unlike the previous MCEDs, which discussed global issues, mostly related with environmental performance, MCED 2005 was the first conference to take up environmental sustainability in Asia and the Pacific.
Kim said the Seoul Initiative Network on Green Growth (SINGG) is a network signed by 36 participating countries of the conference, designed to tackle policy consultations and information exchange and serve as a network among central and local governments, private sector and experts. Kim said, "We follow the Seoul initiative and following the conference, translate region implementation programs into action, MCED 2005 was action-oriented conference and UNECAP wants to promote the implementation", Kim said.
Concerning the funding of the operation of SINGG, an Environmental Ministry official said details of the matters have yet to be established, but the ministry has allocated its own budget as the first step.
The ministry official said from the design stage of production and production process, reducing natural resources not only reduce pollution emissions but also decrease production costs in the interests of the private sector, departing from the past "end of the pipe" approach aimed at controlling pollution emission. In case of land and other development projects, all matters, including conflicts, need to be discussed and sold during the planning and designing stages to save money and time during the implementation stage, he noted.
Asked about the definition of the terminology "Green Growth", Kim said senior officials' meetings had hot, long debates about the terminology and they now understand that environmental sustainability is different from environmental performance, adding that this is the beginning of the discussions about Green Growth. nw