Environmental security in small states: the threat of pollution

Dec 10, 2017 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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Guyana welcomes the opportunity to participate in the Third Session of the United Nations Environment Assembly and its associated meetings. I thank the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Mr. Erik Solheim, for inviting me to address the High-Level Segment Opening of the Assembly.
The Assembly’s theme – Towards a Pollution Free Planet – expresses humanity’s common aspiration for environmental security. A raft of international agreements, the most recent of which are the Paris Agreement on climate change and the 203o Sustainable Agenda, reflect a deepening international awareness and a widening consensus on the need to ensure environmental security.
This Assembly’s mission is to point to the path forward in translating its aspirations into actions which will lead to a pollution-free planet.
All states are not created equal. Their different endowments must guide a four-pronged approach that takes their capabilities into account.
· Information, education and communication must be extended through a sustained campaign aimed at raising awareness of the urgency of eliminating pollution at the level of citizen, household and community in all countries.
It is not to be assumed that peoples everywhere are aware of the consequences of contamination and pollution. Poverty reduces peoples’ range of choices. Persons in remote areas might be ignorant or uninformed, leading to risk-taking or recklessness.
· Cooperation should be strengthened to ensure that states, particularly small states, can benefit from the transfer of technologies and can access international financing to support programmes to reduce pollution.
· International organization: The world needs an international organization to drive cooperation, collaboration and coordination to ensure a pollution free-planet. UNEP is that organization. UNEP must be supported, by all members of the United Nations, in fulfilling its mission.
· Legislation and regulation to promote environmental security must be comprehensive and backed by robust enforcement. Much of the pollution in the mining and forestry sectors take place in remote areas, away from the main population centres. This isolation can conceal lawlessness. It makes it difficult, also, to enforce environmental laws. Given the transnational potential of pollution, municipal laws must reflect the principles of environmentalism contained in international agreements and conventions.
A sustained public information and education campaign, the intensification of cooperation, a strong international environmental organization, and the robust enforcement of environmental laws form the bases for ensuring a safe and healthy environment for all of earth’s citizens.
ENTITLEMENT
A clean and healthy environment is an entitlement of all, not a privilege for an elite. It is a foundational principle of environmental security and of international environmental law.
The Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment of 1972, four and half decades ago stated:
Man has the fundamental right to freedom, equality, adequate conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being, and bears a solemn responsibility to protect and improve the environment for present and future generations.
The Rio Declaration on the Environment and Development of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development of 1992 emphasised that humans are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature.
The entitlement to inhabit a clean and healthy environment is an essential element of environmental security in small states since it increases human security and reduces human venerability to human- induced environmental degradation.
ENVIRONMENT
Pollution of the air, water and land is approaching, and, in some cases, has reached, dangerous levels. Emissions from industries are polluting the air we breathe. Chemical-laced waste and effluent are poisoning the world’s waterways which are still used for bathing, drinking, fishing, swimming and washing in some remote communities.
The indiscriminate and insanitary dumping of single-use plastics and other non-biodegradable substances threatens the health of citizens and the food they consume. Natural hazards, which are not restricted to political jurisdictions or state borders, are resulting in death, damage, destruction and degradation of the environment.
Pollution, however, is preventable and reversible. Technologies exist to eliminate pollution.
Small states, however, limited in size, human resources, technology and capital cannot effectively eradicate pollution on their own. Small states need the support of international organizations to propel the processes of public education, international cooperation and capacity-building necessary for ensuring people’s entitlement to a clean and healthy environment.
A SMALL, GREEN STATE
Guyana is moving towards becoming a ‘green state’. Guyana, three years prior to the Rio Summit, had the foresight to enter into an environmental covenant with the international community. It dedicated 360,000 hectares of its rainforest for conservation, biodiversity research and sustainable development.
Guyana’s decision was a recognition that “… a life of dignity and well-being” was linked to the protection of the environment. Guyana is setting aside an additional two million hectares of its land mass for conservation, bringing the total protected area system to 15% of the country’s territory.
Guyana’s ‘Constitution’ provides that: Everyone has the right to an environment that is not harmful to his or her well-being.
Conservation is a vital tool in preserving and protecting biodiversity, freshwater sources and the integrity of ecosystems. It promotes the production of environmental services which support life on earth. The ‘green state’ can become a model of environmental stewardship. It can show how small states can play a big role in protecting the world’s air, water and land from the threat of pollution. Small states, however, cannot do it alone.
A pollution-free planet is consistent with people’s entitlement to live in a clean and healthy environment. It promotes environmental security of small states. That entitlement can be realized through support for:
– an extensive information, education and communication campaign aimed at raising awareness of environmental responsibility;
– international cooperation;
-international organisation; and
– legislation aimed at giving effect to principles of international environmental law.I commend the United Nations Environment Programme for organizing this ‘Assembly’. I wish it all success in advancing the cause of a pollution-free planet.

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