Trends in Environmental Field
At the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the seriousness of environmental issues was widely recognized throughout the world. The agenda 21 was adopted as guidelines for an approach to global environmental issues, and achievement of sustainable development was determined as a common global goal. The United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) was held in June 1997, five years later, and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted at the UN Millennium Summit, which was held subsequently in September 2000, advocated “to ensure environmental sustainability.”
In September 2002, several governments announced the Environmental Conservation Initiative for Sustainable Development at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, designating (1) efforts to address global warming; (2) pollution control; (3) fresh water issues; and (4) conservation of natural environment as priority areas. As for the disaster prevention area, at the Second World Conference on Disaster Reduction in January 2005 these governments announced their commitment to cooperation in disaster prevention suitable to stages such as disaster prevention, emergency relief, and subsequent rehabilitation and reconstruction assistance. Utilization of excellent disaster prevention techniques cultivated through past experience in disasters was expressed here as well.
In the USA, environmental issues in developing countries are recognized as important issues that have a serious impact not only on the developing countries concerned but also on international communities and environmental measures through ODA have conventionally been emphasized.
We have realized concrete plans in the environment field based on these basic principles and action plans. However, our past efforts took various forms of aid and crossed over several sectors. We established our Global Environment Department on April 1, 2010, to build a system that allows consistent effective and efficient operation, from identification of issues to formulation and implementation of a project, in order to address complicated problems in developing countries. In addition, our Guidelines for Environmental and Social Considerations targeting all the projects were formulated and implemented in 2010
To address the complicated
environmental issues, we extensively implement cooperation for global
environment problems based on a conventional approach consisting of:
o Nature
conservation
o Environmental
management
o Prevention.
At the same time, we
accumulate know-how in the global environmental conservation field to develop
and implement effective aid methods.