§ Mr. BennettTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what discussions the United Kingdom Government have had about improving co-ordination in respect of the United Nations Environment Programme and(a) the Montreal Protocol, 189W (b) the Basel Agreement, (c) the Kyoto climate change negotiations, (d) CITES and (e) other individual environmental agreements. [48030]
§ Mr. MeacherA tendency towards fragmentation has reduced the effectiveness of some environmental agreements. The Government believe this should be addressed. The Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, Mr. Klaus Toepfer, has been mandated to bring forward proposals on improving co-ordination between the environmental conventions to the Twentieth Governing Council next February. The United Kingdom, acting as the Presidency of the European Union, was instrumental in negotiating agreement to this mandate at the Fifth Special Session of the Governing Council on 20–22 May. I also expect the report of the United Nations Task Force on Environment and Human Settlements, chaired by Klaus Toepfer, to make recommendations on this area.