ADMINISTRATOR OF THE UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY MEETS WITH SAEFL DIRECTOR Joint Swiss-U.S. commitment to international environmental protection
Bern, 24.01.2003 - Christine Todd Whitman, Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), met with her Swiss counterpart SAEFL Director Philippe Roch on 24 January for a lunch meeting in Zurich. They discussed international environmental policy issues, including the tasks of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the potential for further cooperation in environmental issues. Philippe Roch called on the United States to ratify the important environmental conventions such as the Basel Convention or the Kyoto Protocol.
Global environmental protection needs to be comprehensive, coherent, effective and efficient. This is what both Philippe Roch, Director of the Swiss Agency for the Environment, Forests and Landscape (SAEFL), and his American counterpart Christine Whitman, emphasized during their lunch meeting in Zurich. Mrs. Whitman, who is the Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is in Switzerland for the Davos World Economic Forum.
Philippe Roch placed emphasis on strengthening the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as the central pillar of the global environmental system during the meeting with his American counterpart. Switzerland and the United States will primarily support the continuation of the important work of the UNEP in the chemical field, and the allocation of the necessary funds to do this. Both countries agreed that priority issues to be addressed at the upcoming session of the UNEP Governing Council (3 –7 February in Nairobi) were chemicals, water, and consumer and production habits.
Christine Whitman und Philippe Roch also discussed the preparations for the World Water Forum that will take place in Kyoto between 15-24 March. The SAEFL Director outlined the ecosystem-approach initiated last year by Switzerland: water-related problems can only be resolved once ecosystems, such as forests, soils and wetlands, are protected and used sustainably.
Strengthening the constructive cooperation
Cooperation in international environmental policy between the United States and Switzerland is constructive, e.g. in the reform of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development or in the group of western industrialized countries that do not belong to the EU (JUSCNAZ). Christine Whitman und Philippe Roch discussed further development of this cooperation and the potential for joint initiatives. Relations between Swiss and U.S. authorities should be pursued.
Philippe Roch, who until recently was President of the Conference of Parties to the Basel Convention, specifically called on the United States to ratify this agreement adopted in 1989. He explained that the Convention is an important instrument for controlling the transboundary movement of hazardous waste and for disposing of such waste. He also called for ratification of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Kyoto Protocol.
Publisher
Federal Office for the Environment FOEN
https://www.bafu.admin.ch/en
