We call for: The Global Environment Facility (GEF) to be increased; donors to meet the 0.7% of GNP target for aid by 2002,; and for all aid to be better targeted to the objectives of the Rio agreements and post-Rio conferences; linkage of ODA and FDI to ensure that environmental and social legislation and institutions are strengthened to ensure that FDI is consistent with sustainable development; ensure that international investment regimes do not undermine countries' ability to regulate investment on environmental and social grounds or encourage relaxation of standards to attract investment; encourage corporate environmental management systems that internalise Rio agreements into business operations; negotiations to start on an international aviation fuel charge, the revenue from which should be channelled into mechanisms such as the GEF and UNDP's Capacity 21; reform of taxation to encourage ecologically and socially responsible behaviour; elimination of environmentally damaging subsidies in a socially equitable manner; a stronger focus on ecologically and socially responsible budget disbursements; stricter scrutiny to prevent abuse of all funds and corrupt practices at both national and international levels; establishment of a stronger global regulatory framework for international capital flows, in particular on speculative financial transactions, which can severely disrupt national economies and societies. States should act on the commitment made at the UN Conference on Women and Habitat II to ensure that corporations, including transnationals, comply with national codes, social security, and international law, including international environmental law. International agreements should be promoted that address effectively issues of double taxation, as well as cross-border tax evasion, while improving the efficiency and fairness of tax collection.

We also call for: The establishment of an Intergovernmental and NGO Panel on Financing (or a Sub-Commission of the CSD) to: identify those costs of the transition to sustainable development that are best financed by external assistance and how best to concentrate scarce development assistance funds; analyze and formulate proposals on options for new financial mechanisms for sustainable development; review the implications for sustainable development of private international investment, privatization, structural adjustment and debt; debate and make recommendations on means of delivering finance, such as micro credit and national environmental funds; The establishment of formal links between the CSD and key International financial bodies, including the multilateral development banks, the IMF, the OECD, the G7, the World Economic Forum and the banking community.

Implementation: The Special Session should express strong support for an increased GEF. The response of aid to the Rio conventions and post-Rio conferences should be improved by all donors. The introduction of an aviation fuel charge should be examined in the context of the expiry at the end of 1997 of the EU exemption of aviation fuel from excise duties. The Intergovernmental Panel on Finance would be a subsidiary body of the CSD.

Rationale: Developed countries have failed to meet their commitment under Agenda 21 to provide substantial new and additional resources. External funds are still urgently needed on a large scale. While official development assistance has declined, environmentally damaging subsidies are estimated at $500 billion per year worldwide. Eliminating these subsidies and redirecting part of the savings into supporting sustainable development in developing countries would be a 'win-win' option. Conversely, positive incentives should be provided for environmentally and socially desirable activities. Greater efforts are needed to ensure transparency and to eliminate corruption in the use of all funds, whether external or domestic.

Eighty percent of international private investment flows to a handful of developing countries, most of them not among the least developed. Scrutiny of the implications of this investment for sustainable development is urgently needed: these implications are frequently negative, or at best unknown. The Intergovernmental Panel on Finance would involve a diverse range of experts in its work, including representatives of finance ministries, the banking community, NGOs and the private sector. The Panel should build on previous work, such as that by the Expert Group on Financial Issues of Agenda 21, and develop formal proposals for new approaches to financing sustainable development at both national and international levels. Formalized links between the CSD and key bodies in the international financial system are needed to make international financial governance more transparent, participatory and responsive to the objectives of Agenda 21.

3.1.2 Debt Cancellation

We call for: Major debt cancellation announcements at the Special Session, as it is a critical centrepiece of the Rio formula, and promotion of initiatives for buying debt and channeling it to effective social and economic capacity building. Explain to the public the relationship of debt cancellation to stemming environmental degradation and ending the cycle of poverty.

3.1.3 NGO Participation in Economic Development

We call for: The development of mechanisms and support that enables NGOs and community organisations to have the opportunity to participate in economic development work that is environmentally friendly including the establishment of micro and regular business access to capital, credit, capacity-building and infrastructure, as called for by the Microcredit Summit.

3.2 Trade

We call for: Support for a clear understanding that environmental, food and human rights conventions and other multilateral environmental (MEAs) and human rights agreements, norms and standards that fall outside the direct mandate and purview of the World Trade Organization (WTO) shall not be bound by WTO-related requirements; Trade and Environment Ministers to meet together before the next meeting of the WTO; an Intergovernmental Panel on Trade (or a sub-Commission of the CSD) to be set up which would: Explore, and make recommendations on, potential cross-sectoral mechanisms to reconcile trade and sustainable economic, environmental, and social development objectives; Explore and make recommendations in regards to the implications of free trade vs. fair trade on the impact on food security, rural communities, farmers, and peasants in developing countries, developed countries, and countries in transition, and on the migration of people in vulnerable rural communities to urban ghettoes; As part of a transition to a long-term environmentally sustainable agriculture, we advocate the development of policy instruments to secure commodity prices which reflect the true environmental and social cost of their production, and recommend the withdrawal of escalating tariffs on primary commodities exported from developing countries; Develop policy instruments to ensure that world trade rules do not undermine, but reinforce, food security, especially in net food importing food deficit countries; Develop recommendations on meeting the needs of developing countries for technical and financial assistance in the design, utilization and response to, trade measures and technical regulations; Research, and make proposals on, the criteria under which trade measures may be taken, including development of the concept of 'green tariffication', whereby if tariffs are deployed to protect industries meeting higher environmental standards, the revenue generated could be repatriated to developing countries - possibly in the form of an environment fund administered by a multilateral body for investment in cleaner technologies.

We also call for: Governments to pledge to create an effective new process/mechanism/strategy to strengthen links between the World Bank, IMF, WTO and post-Rio accountability which includes examination of sovereignty and foreign investment issues; To commit to expand efforts to eliminate negative effects on developing countries by reconciling WTO rule-making and global trade practices with the post-Rio agenda to include all the UN Conference agendas; To explore negotiation of a Food Security Convention that would encourage sustainable agriculture as part of a broader international agenda to advance food security; To re-commit to implement the Habitat II agenda which calls for governments to create "regulatory and legal frameworks ... to promote socially and environmentally responsible corporate investment and reinvestment in and partnership with local communities"; To pledge to work for international codes of conduct for corporations and to govern weapons trade and export subsidies; To commit to ensure that the code aims to enforce compliance with ILO agreements and promote an international code of conduct to protect the human rights of workers in developing countries, countries in transition and developed countries, and prevent their gender-based and economic exploitation by transnational corporations.

Developing countries should be assured of continued access to the expertise of UNCTAD in trade and investment issues. UNCTAD's role for the past 20 years in supporting the least developed countries on trade negotiations issues should not be relegated to the World Trade Organization in such a short period of time.

Implementation: The Special Session should declare that measures taken to implement global and other multilateral environmental agreements cannot be challenged in the WTO, and it should agree to the setting up of a new subsidiary body of the CSD to address these issues.

Rationale: Since the first Earth Summit, we have had the completion of the Uruguay Round of GATT and the setting up of the World Trade Organization. Serious concerns have been raised by NGOs and governments that deregulated global trade is creating increasing inequality, environmental degradation and social dislocation.

3.2.1 Fair Trade Versus Free Trade

We call for: Explore and make recommendations in regards to the implications of free trade vs. fair trade on the impact on rural communities and farmers in developing and developed countries, and countries in transition, and on the migration of people in vulnerable rural communities to urban ghettoes;

Develop policy instruments to secure commodity prices which reflect the true environmental and social cost of their production, and recommend the withdrawal of escalating tariffs on primary commodities exported from developing countries; Develop recommendations on meeting the needs of developing countries for technical and financial assistance in the design, utilization and response to, trade measures and technical regulations;

3.2.2 Trade Embargoes

We call for: the creation of mechanisms to offset the effect of trade embargoes not sanctioned by the United Nations on the sustainable economic and environmental development of affected countries.