C

ountries agreed to step up the global response to major environmental and sustainability challenges at the closing session the UN environment conference here on Friday.

The Nusa Dua Declaration underlines the vital important of biodiversity, the urgent need to combat climate change and work toward a good outcome in Mexico at the end of this year, as well as recognizing key opportunities from the accelerated transition to a low-carbon, resource efficient, green economy.

The declaration also highlights the need to streamline international environmental governance architecture as it has been too complex and fragmented.

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) executive director Achim Steiner said that at the conference, the ministers responsible for the environment, meeting just over two months after the climate change conference in Copenhagen, have spoken unequivocally.

"Faced with the continued erosion of the natural environment, the persistent and emerging challenges of chemical pollution and waste, and the overarching challenge of issues such as climate change, the status quo is not an option and change is urgently needed," he said in his closing statement.

"Ministers also recognize that action toward a green economy is taking root in economies across the globe. Accelerating this is a key element of the Nusa Dua Declaration."

Another important step forward was made earlier in the week in the areas of chemicals, hazardous waste and human health. Governments agreed at an Extraordinary Meeting to have more cooperative action by the three relevant treaties - the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions - as a first step to boosting their delivery within countries.

The three-day Governing Council meetings, attended by some 1,200 delegates from 130 countries, also agreed on decisions on oceans put forward by the Indonesian government, which is included in the Intergovernmental Science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

The decisions on ocean recognized that oceans and coasts provide valuable resources and services to support human populations, and that the sustainable use of marine and coastal resources will enhance global food security and contribute to poverty reduction.

"Since the successful outcome of the Manado World Ocean Conference, we are making use of this ministerial meeting to collaborate global attention to strengthen actions on conserving ocean, as many of the blue carbon assets are being degraded" said UNEP deputy executive director Angela Cropper.

Indonesia's Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa chaired an informal meeting in which ministers expressed willingness to continue to actively engage in the process of moving forward.

"While the final outcome of Copenhagen was deemed unsatisfactory to all parties, the Mexico summit will be an important milestone in which all parties are expected to conclude an agreed outcome on the two-track negotiating process," Marty said after the meeting.