New thinking required in environmental work
Former ambassador Lars-Göran Engfeldt rounded off his service at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs by summarising his many years of working on environmental issues in a book. Entitled "From Stockholm to Johannesburg and Beyond", it is an exposé of environmental work in international forums over a 40-year period.
Lars-Göran Engfeldt first came into contact with the subject that would shape his career as early as 1968. At that time he was working at the Permanent Mission of Sweden to the United Nations under Sverker Åström, who was then Ambassador to the UN. It was at this time that Sweden took the initiative that led to the first global environment conference, held in Stockholm in 1972.
Lars-Göran Engfeldt worked actively on the Rio Environment and Development Summit. From 1998 to 2002 he was Swedens Ambassador for Environment, dealing primarily with the Swedish Presidency of the EU and the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development.
His study of over 40 years of environmental work is based on first-hand knowledge and sources. The book is written from the perspective of diplomatic negotiations.
Slow to acknowledge the crisis
The conclusions he draws from his review are not exclusively positive, however. It has taken a long time for the international community to comprehend the seriousness of these issues. Only now, as we see the physical effects of the climate threat, is serious awareness of the crisis dawning.
Nonetheless, the world would be in a worse position without this negotiation process," says Mr Engfeldt. "The process has helped bring about a paradigm shift in humanitys view of itself. We now realise that we are part of the ecological system. Comprehensive legislation has also been achieved in the area of environmental law, but there are many limiting factors.
The most serious of these is the lack of preparedness to actually implement the agreed environmental agenda in practice. Short-termist actions with narrow national interests to the fore are still the norm."
Modernisation and a new concept of GDP
"The international system, which is built to deal with different sectors separately, does not work. We are only able to tackle problems in a fragmented way.
"There is not enough pressure from within to modernise the system either," Mr Engfeldt continues. Environmental issues are not integrated into overall political and economic decision-making.
"In addition, the entire North-South divide spills over into all follow-up since the Rio Summit. There is a major crisis of confidence here. Countries in the South feel that they have to bear the consequences of problems caused by the North without receiving any compensation.
"Our systems of governance have major difficulties dealing with large-scale change. But there is no alternative: we have to start taking a coherent approach to the different crises.
"We must create a strong public awareness of the crisis in influential countries, and the richer industrialised countries must lead the way. And there must be political pressure to actually implement agreements reached. A system of sanctions should be introduced to increase this pressure.
"The North-South divide must be reduced. Goodwill must be created among countries in the South, for example through the removal of subsidies for agriculture and fisheries by countries in the North.
"It is crucial that institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank become more democratic. And the concept of GDP must be modernised to take account of ecosystem services, Mr Engfeldt stresses. We must put a price on the environment."
He concludes However, we must hold out strong hopes for solutions. This particularly applies to the younger generation. We mustnt say that the situation is hopeless because it isnt."
