UN General Assembly
1998

half year this century. At the fourth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, scheduled for Buenos Aires in November, we shall have to agree on the instruments with which to achieve the objectives of Kyoto. Take water. Water is irreplaceable. Water is more important than oil. Yet in more than 80 countries it is in short supply. Two billion people have insufficient access or none at all to clean drinking water. Finding joint solutions for the peaceful use and conservation of water, the source of life, is one of the great tasks of the twenty-first century. The pursuit of this scarce commodity must not be allowed to spark fresh conflicts. Germany intends to remain in the vanguard of the international campaign to protect the environment. I am gratified to note that our commitment has been acknowledged by the appointment of Klaus Töpfer as Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme. But we are not going to rest on our laurels. A few