24 July 2011: The Joint Ministerial Meeting of the UN Conference for Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20) Subregional Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) for Pacific Countries adopted “in principle” an outcome document, including recommendations, and agreed that Pacific Island Countries (PICs) and the Council of Regional Organisations in the Pacific (CROP) would provide comments on the document prior to 1 August 2011.

The meeting was convened in Apia, Samoa, from 21-22 July 2011, by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), and the Government of Samoa. Over 80 participants, including 13 ministers, representatives from governments, UN bodies, and non-governmental and inter-governmental organizations attended the meeting. The meeting allowed Pacific environment and economic ministers to be informed on preparations for the UNCSD and to jointly consider issues relevant to the Pacific region.

Participants discussed creating a green economy in a blue world, and the institutional framework for sustainable development (IFSD), agreeing in principle to a number of recommendations contained in the draft outcome document (Rio+20/Pacific/2011/4-1/Draft).

On the green economy in a blue world, the Pacific subregion recommends, inter alia: the development of a regional green growth roadmap to support implementation of the sustainable development pillar in the Pacific Plan, which should prominently feature the conservation and sustainable management of all marine and ocean resources, as well as terrestrial resources; the completion of national country analyses to form the basis of country-specific strategies for greening economies; enabling policy, legal, regulatory and institutional frameworks to be developed in order for green growth strategies to be pursued, as part of national macro-economic and structural reform policies, as well as law reform; and fiscal and budget reform should aim to harmonize the imperatives of environmental sustainability, social inclusiveness and economic growth.

On strengthening the regional IFSD, the Pacific subregion recommends, inter alia, that: national sustainable development strategies (NSDS) should be retained as the basis for developing and implementing sustainable development policies, within a green growth paradigm; Pacific small island developing States (SIDS) should volunteer for the Forum Compact Peer Review process, as a means of diagnosing problems with policy development, planning, budgeting and aid management; steps should be taken to review and, where relevant, revitalize partnerships that have not been active; respective mandates of international, regional and subregional organizations should be fully respected and maximum collaboration and cooperation emphasized; and development of a web-based platform with detailed descriptions of projects and activities in need of financing in the region for donors to access should be explored.

The document also includes a call to the international community to accept that it bears the moral responsibility and, in turn, the financial burden, for mitigation of and adaptation to climate change. [IISD RS Coverage] [SPREP Press Release]