6 February 2012: The first Meeting of Environment Ministers of the recently constituted Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) has created a working group to define a regional environmental agenda. The Ministers also informally agreed to cooperate during the preparations for, and conduct of, the June 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD or Rio+20).

The December 2011 Summit of Heads of State of CELAC, which convened in Caracas, Venezuela, had adopted a Caracas Plan of Action for 2012, which called for a meeting of environment ministers before Rio+20 to follow up on an April 2011 “Environmental Declaration” laying out priority themes for CELAC work in the environmental area. The Summit also agreed to evaluate the creation of a “multidisciplinary knowledge center” to be tasked with developing a common agenda on water resources management.

CELAC’s President pro tempore, Chile, asked the 18th Forum of Environment Ministers of Latin America and the Caribbean (FME18), meeting in Quito 31 January – 3 February, to also serve as the meeting of environmental ministers called for by the Caracas Summit. As a result, FME18, acting on a formal proposal by Venezuela, suspended itself briefly on 3 February 2012 to reconvene separately as the First Meeting of CELAC Environment Ministers. The Meeting asked the regional office of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) to serve as its secretariat, and then decided to form the working group mandated by the Caracas Summit to develop a regional environmental agenda. Many member countries indicated an interest in participating in the working group.

A proposal to have the First Meeting evaluate the creation of the multidisciplinary center called for by the Caracas Summit was not accepted. Most countries stressed that this task should be left to the working group, and noted that the Meeting did not have enough information before it on which to base an evaluation.

The Dominican Republic proposed that CELAC Ministers should meet and discuss pending issues and proposals daily at Rio+20. While not endorsed as a formal decision, the proposal received broad support.

The First Meeting decided that the Quito Declaration to be adopted by FME18 would also be considered as endorsed by the CELAC Environment Ministers and applicable to CELAC work. [Latin America and Caribbean Regional Coverage’s post on the CELAC Summit] [IISD RS coverage of FME18]