From: Paul Barter <geobpa at nus.edu.sg> To: "'aasust_discuss'" <sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org> Subject: [sustran] UN CSD9 coming up soon! Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 10:32:49 +0800
Dear sustran-discussers
This message is based on information received from ITDP in New York.
As you may know, from 16-27 of April the United Nations' Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD9) will hold its 9th meeting in New York City. Formed in the wake of the 1992 Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, the CSD has met each year to discuss critical issues involved with sustainable development. The topics of the 2001 meeting are energy and transportation.
Five separate 'Major Groups' provide input to this process: business and industry, workers and trade unions, scientific communities, local authorities, and non-government organizations. Each major group has been asked to prepare a 'dialogue paper' in the months leading up to the CSD9 event. These papers will be distributed as part of the official UN CSD materials and become official UN documents. The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) and the Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia and the Pacific (SUSTRAN Network) serve, respectively, as the Northern and Southern co-chairs of the CSD Non-Governmental Organizations' Caucus for Sustainable Transportation and are coordinating the NGO involvement for CSD9.
CSD9's main events (April 16-20) will be 'Multi-Stakeholder Dialogues' on sustainable transportation. Two separate sessions will be guided by the topics: 1) Public-private partnerships to achieve sustainable energy for transport, and 2) Sustainable transport planning: choices and models for human settlements, designs and vehicle alternatives. The text of these events become UN documents and will be used by the Secretariat of the CSD to produce a report and list of recommendations, so any decisions and agreements that take place will be officially noted.
Thus, this session of the CSD is a prime opportunity to start laying the ground work for global data collection, monitoring, and regulation of transportation related development issues. The NGO Transport Caucus is calling for the creation of a global framework on transportation safety in the following categories:
** road safety - to protect all non-motorized transport users, with special attention placed on women, children, and the poor ** fuel and lead - calling for a global ban on leaded gasoline ** ambient air quality and tailpipe emissions - to set global minimum levels ** vehicle design safety - to protect pedestrians and non-motorized road users in the event of an accident
The NGO Transport Caucus hopes to assemble an international community of transport activists to exchange information and, hopefully, set the stage for the creation of a global network of transportation NGOs.
For more information go to http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/csd9/csd9_2001.htm. There you can find copies of the five Multi-stakeholders' dialogue papers and other background information on CSD9 as well as links to relevant websites.
Or contact Walter Hook, Executive Director, ITDP, Northern Co-Chair, CSD NGO Caucus for Sustainable Transport. (mobility at igc.org; www.ITDP.org)
Best wishes,
Paul
Dr Paul A. Barter Visiting Fellow, Department of Geography National University of Singapore 1 Arts Link, Singapore 117570 Tel: +65-874 3860; Fax: +65-777 3091 E-mail: geobpa at nus.edu.sg (I'm also known as A Rahman Paul Barter)
PS I am still volunteer contact point for SUSTRAN Network information services http://www.geocities.com/sustrannet
But for all other SUSTRAN Network matters contact the NEW SECRETARIAT: Dr Bambang Susantono and Ms Moekti H. Soejachmoen Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia and the Pacific (SUSTRAN Network) c/o Pelangi Indonesia, Jl. Danau Tondano No. A-4, Jakarta 10210, Indonesia. Tel. +(62 21) 573 5020, 571 9360 Fax +(62 21) 573 2503 csti at pelangi.or.id
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