U.S. Delegation's Final Statement

AS DELIVERED

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to the Chairman and the rest of the Bureau for producing this preliminary draft document on a tight schedule. My comments today are made with the understanding that the purpose of this session is for the Bureau to hear from delegations on factual matters and areas of general concern, not to start line-in and line-out negotiations.

We would like to echo the comment made by distinguished delegate from Pakistan, representing the G77, encouraging us to focus on action-based and development-oriented policy options, and echo as well the characterization from the distinguished delegate from Germany on behalf of the EU that the purpose of the CSD is to expedite implementation.

As we indicated in our opening statement, the U.S. delegation stands ready to negotiate in good faith for the four days allocated for negotiations during CSD-15. As we also stated, we hope that that these negotiations can add substantively to the 54-plus pages of text we have already agreed to on these topics.

The Chairman's draft serves as an effective summary of the week's discussions, capturing a number of issues that were raised by delegations and Major Groups. However, we are concerned that a document of this length will preclude the concise and value-added deliberations that we feel are appropriate after more than fifteen years of negotiations on these topics.

Mr. Chairman, we believe this text needs to be consolidated into a more focused, action-oriented, and value-added text.

In particular, we hope that the CSD-15 text will honor previous agreements, rather than re-open or re-state them. A significant portion of the Chairman's draft document either reiterates previously agreed language or draws selectively from finely balanced consensus texts. We should reaffirm our commitment to these texts, such as the Monterrey Consensus on Finance and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, in their entirety rather than spend valuable time fighting old battles. We hope this is in line with the sentiments of the comments made moments ago by the G77.

If we spend less time drawing from the past, we can spend more time identifying action-oriented language which points us to the future. In his draft, the Chairman highlights a number of implementation-focused steps, including replicating solutions like stronger building codes and energy efficient public procurement. This type of language -- which identifies new, concrete approaches -- is more likely to mobilize action than broad exhortations.

Building on the precedent set during the CSD Water Cycle, we would also support a deliberation on next steps -- how to build on the gains we've made during this Cycle. To that end, the simplicity and eloquence of the final bullet demonstrates that oftentimes less is more and that a parsimonious approach to text can be the most effective and productive.

Finally, the U.S. delegation urges the Bureau to use CSD-11's mandate as a guiding principle, in particular its call for the CSD to "focus on those areas where it can add value to intergovernmental deliberations" and to limit overlap and duplication with other international organizations. In that regard, we note that a significant portion of the language on climate change in this text duplicates the work of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, despite introductory language claiming the contrary.

In conclusion, the U.S. delegation would like to thank the Bureau and the Secretariat for organizing a productive Intergovernmental Preparatory Meeting. If each of us takes voluntary action to scale up and/or replicate one of the myriad solutions that were highlighted this week and are available to all in the CSD Matrix, we will take a significant step forward in translating 54 pages of text into on-the-ground results. We look forward to an action-oriented and results-focused CSD-15 session in April and May.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.