Course info

EnvStud 680 – OECD Environmental Strategy for the First Decade of the 21st Century

Content:

This OECD Environmental Strategy for the First Decade of the 21st Century is intended to provide clear directions for environmentally sustainable policies in OECD Member countries, and will guide the future work of the OECD in the field of environment. The Strategy should be implemented before 2010. The OECD Environmental Performance Reviews and the environmental indicators programme will be used for the monitoring of progress. The Strategy is an important building block for the OECD-wide Sustainable Development Initiative. OECD Member countries have a special responsibility in the follow-up to the Rio Principles and to Agenda 21 agreed in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Underlying the Strategy is a need to further develop environmental policy towards fostering sustainable development within and among OECD countries in a way that is responsive to nonmember countries in their search for sustainable development. The success of implementing this Strategy will therefore also depend on strengthened co-operation with non-member countries, including developing countries and countries with economies in transition.

Course Lecturer: Gerhard Berchtold, PhD

ECTS credits: 6

Coursebook:

OECD Environmental Strategy

for the First Decade

of the 21st Century

Adopted by OECD Environment Ministers

16 May 2001

ORGANISATION

OECD Environmental Strategy

for the First Decade of the 21st Century

TOWARDS ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

What is the purpose of the Strategy?

This OECD Environmental Strategy for the First Decade of the 21st Century is intended to provide clear directions for environmentally sustainable policies in OECD Member countries, and will guide the future work of the OECD in the field of environment. It is a follow up to the 1998 OECD Environment Ministers' Shared Goals for Action which "invited the OECD to develop a new environmental strategy for the next decade and agreed to review it when they meet in 2001".

The Strategy should be implemented before 2010. The OECD Environmental Performance Reviews and the environmental indicators programme will be used for the monitoring of progress.

Future meetings of the OECD Environment Policy Committee (EPOC) at ministerial level will review the progress achieved in implementing the Strategy.

The Strategy is an important building block for the OECD-wide Sustainable Development Initiative. OECD Member countries have a special responsibility in the follow-up to the Rio Principles and to Agenda 21 agreed in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa in 2002 will serve as a unique opportunity for OECD Member countries to demonstrate leadership in implementing already agreed as well as new policies that will serve to achieve progress towards sustainable development. Implicit in this will be the integration of the economic, social and environmental pillars of sustainable development.

Underlying the Strategy is a need to further develop environmental policy towards fostering sustainable development within and among OECD countries in a way that is responsive to nonmember countries in their search for sustainable development. The success of implementing this Strategy will therefore also depend on strengthened co-operation with non-member countries, including developing countries and countries with economies in transition. OECD countries have an important role to play by building capacity in non-member countries and working with other countries to develop effective and equitable burden sharing arrangements for addressing global environmental problems, recognising their common but differentiated responsibilities.

In implementing the Strategy, governments and the OECD will seek active partnership with the private sector and civil society, and promote co-operation among stakeholders, for example in the workplace.