Disaster assessment training manual for SIDS

Caribbean Subregional Preparations for the International Meeting to Review the Implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States

Preliminary Economic Overview of Caribbean Economies

International Rivers and Lakes Nº 40

The UN/ECE Water Convention: exporting experience in water cooperation to the world.-- II. Virginia wins Potomac water war in Supreme Court.-- III. Water conflicts unlikely according to new study.-- IV. Privatization of the world’s waterways criticized.-- V. Water for five million Americans lost to Mexico?.-- VI. Mexican President blames water debt on predecessors.-- VII. Rio Grande water to be sold to Mexico.-- VIII.Suez may sue Puerto Rico.-- IX. Tribunal chosen to hear dispute over Peruvian preserve.-- X. Transboundry Issues – Iraq requests talks with Syria and Turkey…

Renewable energy and energy efficiency in Latin America and the Caribbean: constraints and prospects

Summary In Latin America, energy efficiency and renewable energy offer great potential for reducing the negative effects of the ever-increasing rates of energy consumption associated with economic growth and the move towards more energy-intensive societal models. Despite over two decades of discussions aimed at giving energy efficiency and renewable energy more prominent positions in the energy policies of Latin American countries, little has been achieved so far. The fact that these issues have not been integrated into energy policies reflects, to a certain extent, a failure on t…

Energy sustainability in Latin America and the Caribbean: the share of renewable sources

A decade of light and shadow: Latin America and the Caribbean in the 1990s

Foreword The 1990s were unquestionably a time of transition and reorientation in several aspects of Latin America and the Caribbean's economic, social and political development. As in any period with these characteristics, the effects of long-standing processes mingled and interacted with incipient change. When the decade ended, ECLAC wished to contribute to the evaluation of the main events that marked the consolidation of reform in the region, recognizing of course that the speed of progress varied from country to country and from sector to sector. This publication offers an analysis of…

International Rivers and Lakes Nº 39

CONTENTS I.International organisations urge Group of Eight leaders to allocate funds to promote cooperation over transboundary waters.II. Four nations guard giant South American aquifer.III.Asia’s potential water conflicts.IV. Excerpts from proceedings of the seminar held by the Permanent Court of Arbitration on resolution of international water disputes.V. Note of the European Court of Auditors on funding of environmental projects.Thestatements and opinions reported in this Newsletter do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or official positions of the United Nations, and ar…

A review of energy policies in the subregion and the impediments to introduction of new and renewable energy sources in the region

Financing for sustainable development: visions and proposals for action from a Latin American and Caribbean perspective

Foreword Throughout the preparatory process for the World Summit on Sustainable Development and at the Summit itself, which was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 26 August to 4 September 2002, discussions were dominated by one central concern: the need to define and reach consensus on concrete, quantitative goals, with fixed deadlines for implementation, which were to supplement the Millennium Development Goals and facilitate progress towards an effective transition to sustainable development. P…

Developments in relation to the proposal for securing the international recognition of the Caribbean sea as a special area in the context of sustainable development

Our Caribbean civilisation has been very much shaped by the sea. The evidence of this in our region abounds from time immemorial: the peopling of our Caribbean; its trading; its economy and commerce, ancient and modern; its daily living and eating; its culture and its thinking. All these facets of life and production have been moulded, even determined, by the sea. Yet, strangely our Caribbean civilisation has yet to reflect in public policy the real value and significance of the sea which joins us all. To be sure, each country in the region has its own ministry of fisheries but each m…

A systems approach to sustainability and sustainable development

The concepts of sustainability and sustainable development are analyzed from a systems perspective. In the most general terms, sustainability of any system can be represented by a non-decreasing valuation function of the outputs of interest of the system considered. Different perspectives on the system of reference are discussed, from the extreme anthropocentric to the extreme bio- or ecocentric positions, and related to the criteria (based on the assumed substitutability between natural and manufactured capital); of very strong, strong, weak, and very weak sustainability. A set of underlying …

An Integrated Management Approach to the Caribbean Sea

Science and technology for sustainable development: a Latin American perspective

This publication, compiled by Gilberto C. Gallopín, Regional Adviser in Environmental Policy for Latin America and the Caribbean, contains the results of the deliberations of the Latin American and Caribbean Regional Workshop on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development. The purpose of the Workshop was to discuss the practical, theoretical and organizational challenges that the quest for sustainable development poses to science and technology (S&T). The increase in complexity and connectivity characteristic of our times results in that the components of the problems are now much …

Handbook for estimating the socio-economic and environmental effects of disasters

Traffic congestion: the problem and how to deal with it

The text of 194 pages analyses the negative impacts of congestion and the multidisciplinary efforts that are needed to keep it under control, through the design of appropriate policies and measures. Congestion control is part of the development of a strategic vision of how a city should develop which can make it possible to harmonize the needs of mobility, growth and competitiveness, which are so necessary today and in the future, with the sustainability of cities and the improvement of their quality of life.The task is complex and it is not easy to find appropriate solutions. The present publ…

International Rivers and Lakes Nº 38

CONTENTS I.European Commission welcomes adoption of Directive on public access to environmental information.II. Adoption of the human right to water.III.Commission asks France, Spain and Italy to respond to queries on environmental complaints.IV. Moscow Mayor Plans to Sell Water to the World.V. New Treaties Relating to the Maas and the Scheldt.VI. Province at risk of EU fines over water.VII. Water Worries: How is a lifetime to be shared in politically turbulent times, while catering to economic interests.VIII.Zimbabwe, Mozambique Set to launch Joint Water Commission.Thestatements and opinions …

Expenditures, investment and financing for sustainable development in Brazil

The objective of this study is to examine the evolution and characteristics of the financing for the nvironment in Brazil, in order to identify the advances and retreats after the Rio 92 Conference. Brazil has a very decentralized administration, composed of three independent levels of public administration: the federal government, 27 state governments, and more than 5000 municipios, or municipalities; all of them with specific environmental institutions. However, at the time of the completion of this report, there were no indicator…

Expenditures, investment and financing for sustainable development in Trinidad and Tobago

Main Statistical Points GEF funding has proceeded in recent years primarily via the World Bank, UNDP and UNEP. It has provided approximately US$5m in funding for projects totaling approximately US$18m in value (therefore over 70% locally cofinanced).   Total public expenditure (capital and recurrent) on environmental projects (as identified herein) has ranged between 0.15% to 0.21% of GDP over the period or approximately between US$2 to US$3 per capital. …

Food Security Issues for Caribbean