IA

103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. J. RES. 166

Providing for the United States to assume a strong leadership role in implementing the decisions made at the Earth Summit by developing a national strategy to implement Agenda 21 and other Earth Summit agreements through domestic policy and foreign policy, by cooperating with

all countries to identify and initiate further agreements to protect the

global environment, and by supporting and participating in the highlevel United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MARCH 29, 1993

Ms. PELOSI (for herself, Mr. ACKERMAN, Mr. BACCHUS of Florida, Mr. BEILENSON, Mr. BLACKWELL, Mr. BROWN of California, Mrs. COLLINS of Illinois, Mr. DELLUMS, Mr. EDWARDS of California, Mr. EVANS, Mr. FOGLIETTA, Mr. FLAKE, Mr. FROST, Mr. GILCHREST, Mr. GILMAN, Mr.

HOCKBRUECKNER, Mr. HUGHES, Mr. JEFFERSON, Mr. LANTOS, Mr.

LEHMAN, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Mr. MACHTLEY, Mr. MARKEY, Mr. MAZZOLI, Mr. MILLER of California, Mr. MORAN, Mrs. MORELLA, Ms. NORTON, Mr. OWENS of New York, Mr. PORTER, Mr. SANDERS, Mrs.

SCHROEDER, Mr. SCHUMER, Mr. STUDDS, Mr. TOWNS, and Mrs.

UNSOELD) introduced the following joint resolution; which was referred

to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

JOINT RESOLUTION

Providing for the United States to assume a strong leadership role in implementing the decisions made at the

Earth Summit by developing a national strategy to implement Agenda 21 and other Earth Summit agreements
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through domestic policy and foreign policy, by cooperating with all countries to identify and initiate further

agreements to protect the global environment, and by

supporting and participating in the high-level United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development.

Whereas the United Nations Conference on Environment and

Development (hereinafter in this resolution referred to as

‘‘UNCED’’), known as the Earth Summit, assembled in

June of 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the largest summit of heads of state in history and outlined a comprehensive action plan (hereinafter in this resolution referred to as ‘‘Agenda 21’’) for environmentally sustainable development (hereinafter in this resolution referred

to as ‘‘sustainable development’’);

Whereas the United States has a strong national interest in

the environmental sustainability of global economic development;

Whereas Agenda 21 offers a significant starting point for

continuing progress in avoiding environmental degradation and social and economic disintegration in the 21st

century;

Whereas the role of the United States should be one of leadership and positive action in the implementation process

of Agenda 21 and all other decisions of UNCED;

Whereas Agenda 21 urges all governments to adopt national

strategies for sustainable development;

Whereas Agenda 21 urges all countries to ‘‘make significant

progress’’ in incorporating environmental costs into economic decisions, to undertake research on sustainable

production methods and consumption patterns, and to
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undertake other actions to make their economies more

environmentally sustainable;

Whereas Agenda 21 calls for a ‘‘supportive international climate for achieving environment and development goals’’

by ‘‘providing adequate financial resources to developing

countries and dealing with international debt’’ and calls

for ‘‘the reallocation of resources presently committed to

military purposes’’ to support United States policies and

the efforts of developing countries to implement Agenda

21;

Whereas UNCED recommended that a high-level United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (hereinafter in this resolution referred to as the ‘‘Commission’’)

be established by the 47th United Nations General Assembly to provide a vital forum to review progress made

by considering reports from national governments, international organizations, and nongovernmental organizations;

Whereas many opportunities for agreements concerning more

extensive actions on critical sustainable development issues remained unresolved at UNCED and will require

further attention by the nations of the world; and

Whereas the ultimate success of achieving sustainable development and a healthy environment at the national and

international levels depends upon actions taken at the

State and local community levels, and on actions by

schools, public offices, businesses, citizens, and citizen organizations: Now, therefore, be it

1 Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives

2 of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 That effective follow-up to achieve the many goals of the
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1 agreements reached at UNCED will depend on the overall

2 direction and action by the President and the Congress

3 on the following:

4 (1) The President and the Congress should

5 adopt a national strategy for environmentally sus6 tainable development, based on an extensive process

7 of nationwide consultations with all interested orga8 nizations and individuals, including State and local

9 governments, nongovernmental organizations, busi10 nesses, and labor groups.

11 (2) The President and the Congress should en12 courage and facilitate, at all levels of community and

13 sectors of society, appropriate means for adopting

14 individual Agenda 21 plans of action, including the

15 establishment of local, county, State, business, and

16 other boards and commissions for achieving sustain17 able development. Each member of the Congress

18 should help initiate this process within their States

19 or districts.

20 (3) The President, Secretary of State, and the

21 Congress should formulate initiatives and policies to

22 help developing countries develop the capacity to im23 plement Agenda 21. The Congress should restruc24 ture United States foreign assistance to provide a

25 fundamental mandate for sustainable development.
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1 (4) The President should establish an effective

2 mechanism to plan, initiate, and coordinate United

3 States policy for implementing Agenda 21. Respon4 sibility should be vested in a duly constituted office,

5 headed by an appropriate high level official, and the

6 necessary staff support structure should be provided.

7 (5) In order to contribute to a transition to an

8 environmentally sustainable United States economy,

9 the research and policy initiatives urged in Agenda

10 21 should be pursued, including research on environ11 mentally sustainable consumption patterns, identi12 fication of a strategy to eliminate or reduce sub13 sidies for unsustainable natural resource exploi14 tation, and move toward pricing policies that more

15 truly reflect environmental costs.

16 (6) The Congress should adopt a system to re17 allocate an appropriate amount of savings from re18 duced defense spending in order to achieve the goals

19 of Agenda 21 for global environmental protection

20 and sustainable development over the next decade.

21 (7) The President should promote and actively

22 participate in new and existing multilateral efforts

23 aimed at creating a more favorable international eco24 nomic climate for developing countries to practice
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1 sustainable development. Such efforts should in2 clude—

3 (A) reduction in developing country debt,

4 linked with environmental policy reforms;

5 (B) focusing the work of multilateral donor

6 consultative groups which now exist for each of

7 some 80 developing countries on evaluation of,

8 and support for, their national sustainable de9 velopment strategies; and

10 (C) increasing loans and concessional as11 sistance to developing countries where imple12 mentation of national sustainable development

13 strategies are underway.

14 (8) The United States should actively support

15 the Commission authorized by the 47th United Na16 tions General Assembly. The United States should

17 seek a strong role for the Commission in the United

18 Nations system to monitor and evaluate progress in

19 meeting the goals identified in Agenda 21 and other

20 decisions at UNCED. The United States should pur21 sue a strong sustainable development mandate for

22 all relevant activities of the United Nations and a

23 catalytic role for the Commission in coordinating

24 and facilitating the implementation of that mandate.
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1 (9) The President should affirm strong United

2 States commitment to the Commission by—

3 (A) appointing a high-level representative

4 or delegation from the United States to the

5 Commission, including, as appropriate, rep6 resentation at the ministerial level and Congres7 sional and non-government observers, and

8 (B) supporting the Under Secretary Gen9 eral for Policy Coordination and Sustainable

10 Development in coordinating the implementa11 tion of Agenda 21 in the United Nations system

12 and heading the secretariat support structure

13 for the Commission.

14 (10) The President should submit a national re15 port to the Commission on—

16 (A) activities the United States has under17 taken to implement Agenda 21, both domesti18 cally and internationally, on progress made to19 ward fulfilling other commitments undertaken

20 at UNCED; and

21 (B) other environmental and developmental

22 activities the United States has undertaken to

23 strengthen agreements reached at UNCED.

24 The President should strongly encourage all United

25 Nations members to submit such national reports.
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1 (11) The United States should support rules of

2 procedure for the Commission which ensure the ac3 tive participation of nongovernmental organizations,

4 based on the procedures used in UNCED as agreed

5 in paragraphs 38.11 and 38.44 of Agenda 21, and

6 should also encourage the active participation in the

7 Commission of representatives of the international

8 financial institutions, GATT, regional and

9 subregional development banks and financial institu10 tions, and regional economic integration organiza11 tions.

12 (12) The President should submit an annual re13 port to the Congress on the steps taken by the Unit14 ed States to implement Agenda 21 and the rec15 ommendations made by this resolution, and should

16 make information regarding such steps available to

17 members of the Congress upon their request.

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