A news article in 'Nature' highlights the failure of the Commission on Sustainable Development meeting (CSD 15) to ratify a draft communiqué on indoor pollution & other development issues A news article by Narelle Towie in the journal 'Nature' (Vol 447|17 May 2007) highlights the failure of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development meeting 15 to ratify a draft communiqué on indoor pollution and other developmental issues that were up for discussion. Despite two weeks of negotiations in New York, representatives from Switzerland and the European Union (EU) rejected the draft communiqué, saying that its vacuous content would threaten past agreements and contained no goals that would spur action on a number of key issues.
But activists say the very fact that the discussion took place represents valuable progress in acknowledging the scale of the pollution problem. Maria Arce Moreira, a policy adviser to Practical Action www.practicalaction.org reflected that "In previous discussions, the problem of indoor air pollution has been basically invisible, perhaps because it is a situation that affects mainly women...It's important that it is finally recognized as a problem, but the proposed actions to deal with it are not enough."
According to estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO), smoke emitted by traditional cookers kills 1.5 million people each year, most of them women and children (WHO Indoor Air Pollution: National Burden of Disease Estimates; 2007).
Activist groups have previously called on governments to adopt firm measures to halve the number of people cooking with traditional fuels. But with fossil- fuel prices at historic highs, and most of the world's poorest people using wood-burning stoves, there is little appetite for such measures.
Peter Davies, an energy adviser to the UK Department for International Development, who was also at the meetings, argues that progress remains possible without firm targets. "Goals and targets are not something developed countries can push on. These are issues that national governments need to decide for themselves with their own national-development and poverty-reduction plans. ..The EU and First World groups tended to be influenced by environmental issues, whereas the G77 (the developing nations) seemed to take a much harder-nosed look at what they need for their economic development," says Davies.
The lack of consensus means that rather than producing a final summary agreed by all countries, this year's chair, Abdullah bin Hamad al- Attiyah of Qatar, will issue a text that merely lists the points discussed. "The final text will be very watered down now," says Arce Moreira. "We do not envisage support for energy issues related to indoor air pollution, such as addressing access to modern energy for the poor." But Davies says that what matters is that the hitherto obscure issue of indoor pollution is gradually raising its political profile. "Whatever the chair's summary says will be pretty bland. It has been negotiated to the lowest common denominator. But I think it will be a mistake to look at the chair's summary and say this is it," he says. "The process and the debate it generates has value in itself."
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