Environment/Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Ministers' Conference

Parliamentary State Secretary Gila Altmann at the ASEM countries Conference of Environment Ministers in Beijing

The European Union environment ministers and their counterparts from several Asian countries met on 17 January in Beijing to discuss international environmental issues and the potential fordeveloping their partnership. The meeting originated in a proposal by Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and the Chinese prime minister Zhu Rongji at the 3rd ASEM Summit in Seoul in October 2000.Besides the EU and China, other ASEM partner countries are Korea, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam (ASEM = Asia-Europe Meeting). Topics at theConference included international climate protection and sustainable energy policy, conservation of biological diversity and measures for combatting desertification and for the conservation offorests. The German delegation was headed by Gila Altmann, Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Environment Ministry.

Gila Altmann commented that the meeting would give the responsible environment ministers of the ASEM region the opportunity for an in-depth exchange of opinion on global environmental policy, ingood time for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, due to take place in Johannesburg from 26 August to 4 September 2002. The Parliamentary State Secretary went on to say that the meeting inBeijing was intended to be used as a stage in the preparations for Johannesburg.

" In Johannesburg, " she said, "it will be important to agree a global pact containing as many concrete, action-oriented decisions as possible on the major topics of sustainable development.Sustainable development must not be banished to the chronicles of history as a concept developed in Rio; it must instead be implemented to a greater extent throughout the world. Even though there isevident proof of success since Rio, we have not yet achieved a major reverse in trend. The private sector should also be incorporated into such a pact, for example by the supranational enterprisesvoluntarily embracing the cause of sustainable development. Over the next two decades, a globally sustainable economy must be established.