Madam Speaker, first let me say that the meeting hosted in Hamilton by the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of the Environment for the G-7 environment ministers reached substantive recommendations and conclusions.
With respect to the question of international institutions, the ministers looked at two different aspects. First, they discussed the roles and responsibilities of the primary international institutions that address the environment and sustainable development. The ministers agreed that the United Nations environment program should be reinforced in its efforts to be the global environmental voice, while the United Nations commission on sustainable development, created just over two years ago in the aftermath of Rio, should continue to evolve as a key political and policy forum to promote sustainable development principles and practices worldwide.
With respect to international financial institutions, the ministers agreed that the World Bank should place sustainable development at the top of its list of priorities and that it should operate on a much more open and transparent basis. Plans for projects funded by the World Bank should demonstrate how the principles of sustainable development will be promoted and how local participation will be a basic part of the process.
The ministers also called on the International Monetary Fund to take environmental considerations into account in its structural adjustment programs. They also called for continued work from the new global environmental facility, the GEF, on providing funding for global environment priorities and noted the important role that private capital flows will play into the future. They also indicated their intention to work with the new World Trade Organization to make sure the environment is a fundamental part of its work. In this regard, let me signal the initiatives recently taken by UNCTAD and UNEP in focusing on the environment and the economy.
The important outcomes of the Hamilton meeting of environment ministers are being provided to the preliminary process for the Halifax summit. I am certain that any consideration of financial institutions that might take place in the context of the
Halifax summit will be well informed by the views of the Hamilton meeting, which will flow into the Halifax summit.