In what I should confess is a desultory fashion, I have been following the outpourings from COP17 in Durban, and this caught my eye:
Second Committee Approves Text on Harmony with Nature
As my eyes are drawn to texts on human-nature harmony like "the burnt Fool's bandaged finger ... wabbling back to the Fire", I read on:
6 December 2011: The UN General Assembly’s (UNGA) Second Committee adopted a draft resolution on Harmony with Nature, under the agenda item on sustainable development. The draft addresses the need for integration of scientific work and national legislation, as well as for better statistical data on sustainable development, and calls for progress on moving beyond gross domestic product (GDP). It also calls for an interactive dialogue on scientific findings to be held in April 2012.
The explanatory text continues:
Draft resolutions of the UNGA's Committees must be approved by the plenary before taking effect. If adopted, the draft resolution (A/C.2/66/L.42/Rev.1) would have the UNGA: take note of the second report of the Secretary-General on Harmony with Nature (A/66/30) and request a subsequent report at the UNGA’s 67th session; request the UNGA President to convene an interactive dialogue, to be held at the plenary meetings to be convened during the commemoration of International Mother Earth Day on 23 April 2012, to discuss the scientific findings on how human activities are affecting the Earth’s ecosystem; request the UN Secretary-General to establish a trust fund for the participation of independent experts in this interactive dialogue; request the UN Secretary-General to continue making use of the existing information portals on sustainable development maintained by the Secretariat to advance the integration of scientific interdisciplinary work and existing national legislation; note that for this purpose a portal will have been launched by 2012; call for strengthening the quality and quantity of basic statistical data on the three pillars of sustainable development; and invite UN system and stakeholders to identify new ways and means to overcome the limitations of GDP with regard to sustainable development, as well as to better measure the environmental degradation resulting from human activity.
Thank goodness, I thought, that someone has the patience and fortitude to do all this. However, to appreciate its full significance, you need to read the actual minute.
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