WEEKLY SUMMARY SPECIAL REPORT UN: CONFERENCE ON THE ENVIRONMENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85T00875R001500040021-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 26, 2005
• Sequence Number: 21
• Publication Date: June 2, 1972
• Content Type: REPORT

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Secret
DIRECTORATE OF
INTELLIGENCE
WEEKLY SUMMARY
Special Report
UN.- Conference on the Environment
State Department review completed
!!, 1 ;'1 I.l _
7
App t? F~j
Secret
N2 606
2 June 1972
No. 0372/72A
A-RDP85T00875R001500040021-5
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 The UN-sponsored Conference on the Flu-
man Environment is scheduled to open in Stock-
holm on 5 June. The 12-day meeting is unlikely
to produce agreements or to institute controls
that will deal effectively with the world's environ-
mental problems. But it may take some hesitant
fist steps in that direction. The conference
should, for example, bring home the point that
environmental protection is going to require mul-
tilateral and global cooperation. It will promote
greater exchange of information, and it should
help convince doubters that international action
to preserve the environment is a matter of some
urgency. The conference will also bring out the
main obstacles to such cooperation-principally,
the disparate concerns of the developed and less-
developed countries, and the absence of a con-
sensus on the appropriate role of international
organizations.
Background
Despite the widespread interest in environ-
mental problems in the post - World War I I period
and the increasing recognition that these prob-
lems are not neatly contained within national
boundaries, the international response has been
belated and inadequate. A number of UN agencies
have undertaken environmental programs, but
with little over-all coordination. Only in those
international organizations with a European or
Atlantic orientation (NATO, OECD, etc.) has
much attention been given to multi-national
action. Even in those bodies, the impetus has
been supplied largely by the US, which is far in
the lead in its research into the nature of the
problem and the extent of the threat.
In 1968, Sweden proposed a UN Conference
on the Human Environment and obtained the
endorsement of both the Economic and Social
Council and the General Assembly. Planning was
handed over to a 27-nation preparatory com-
mittee and a small secretariat staff headed by
Maurice Strong, a Canadian who has since been
designated undersecretary general for environ-
mental affairs and secretary general of the con-
ference. The committee and staff have planned
what is expected to be the largest international
conference ever held under UN auspices; over
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1,500 official representatives will be in attend- , r,.
Procedural Difficulties and Atmospherics
During the preparatory sessions, Moscow re-
peatedly warned that it would not attend the
conference unless East Germany were granted
equal status with West Germany. These threats
became more explicit last January after the Gen-
eral Assembly chose the so-called "Vienna for-
mula" givi the vote at Stockholm only to mem-
bers of the UN or of UN-related agencies. Bonn
meets this criterion; Pankow does not.
Since the General Assembly setback, Mos-
cow's efforts to help the East Germans get to
Stockholm have reached a dead end. Moscow's
hope that Pankow would gain admission to a
UN-related agency before the conference col-
lapsed last month when the Assembly of the
World Health Organization again voted by a large
margin to defer the East German application for
membership for another year. Likewise, Moscow's
efforts to obtain de facto equal status for
Pankow-by eliminating all voting at the con-
ference and operating by consensus-have foun-
dered because the Western powers are unwilling
to rely on such procedures for so important a
meeting.
Unless iiiere is a sudden change of heart in
Moscow, it therefore appears that the conference
will open without representation from the USSR
and other Warsaw Pact countries. This will not
scuttle the meeting as many had feared it might.
Soviet support of multilateral undertakings is
grudging even in the best of circumstances, and
the USSR was not expected to contribute very
much at Stockholm. Moreover, a Soviet absence
now would not preclude association with the
work of the conference. Moscow, indeed, signed
an environmental pact with the US during the
Moscow summit.
Nevertheless, Soviet absence will dilute the
international commitment at Stockholm to do
something about shared ecological dangers. The
Swedes, who recognize the need for Soviet co-
operation in checking the serious pollution
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 problems of the Baltic, will particularly regret
their failure to show up. In addition, those coun-
tries that regard the conference principally as
another opportunity to air their complaints
against the industrialized nations will have no
targets now except the West. And the Chinese,
who have decided to participate, will be free to
play upon these anti-Western themes.
In any case, it seems likely that emotions
will often run high, and perhaps even get in the
way of serious business at the conference. The
host government itself, for example, is expected
to push for adoption of contentious language
regarding the testing of weapons of mass destruc-
tion, and it is under increasing pressure to put
before the conference allegations of "ecocide"
associated with US military operations in South-
east Asia. Sweden is also permitting a number of
official and non-official environmental meetings
to convene in Stockholm at the same time as the
UN conference. Most of them are likely to be
dominated by radical elements intent on gaining
the attention of the numerous media repre-
sentatives on hand. There could, as a result, be
some violence in the streets of Stockholm.
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Left: Detergents in the ctnals of Venice
Fish killed by pesticides in Rhin,:
The Planning to Date
Despite the procedural problems, the pre-
paratory sessions have gone well, and a very
ambitious agenda has been drawn up. It envisages
that once credentials issues are resolved, work in
committees will focus on six key topics:
? population growth and the quality of urban
life;
? natural resources management;
? identification and control of pollutants of
global significance;
? the need for international data exchanges;
? environmental implications of development
programs;
? institutional arrangements required to en-
hance world-wide cooperative measures.
The plenary sessions will review the com-
mittees' findings. They will also adopt a declara-
tion on the human environment. The negotiations
so far on the text of this declaration strongly
suggest that the conference will be more engaged
with political than technical issues. Led by Brazil,
many of the less-developed countries for some
 time have been suspicious that Stockholm could
produce environmental controls which the indus-
trial powers could tolerate and afford, but which
would inhibit the poorer nations in exploiting
their own resources. The current 23-paragraph
declaration accordingly blends bland assertions on
the need to upgrade rational environmental pro-
grams with vague formulations calling for aid in
carrying them out.
The plenary will also review an "action
plan," worked out by Undersecretary General
Strong's staff, which is based on some 3,300
pages of national submissions. The chief proposals
in the plan call for a 100-station international
network to monitor air pollution, a ten-year mor-
atorium on commercial whaling, and an "earth-
watch" to serve as an advance warning system on
potentially adverse environmental effects. To put
across the entire package-or even its main
points-will require great effort and numerous
political compromises, given the conflicting in-
terests and the sensitivity of the sovereignty and
budgetary issues involved.
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Mining in Australia
Left: Dam building in Brazil
To try to cope with the financial and insti-
tutional arrangements required far an effective
multi-national program, the US in February pro-
posed the creation of a voluntary UN Fund for
the Environment, with a goal of $100 million for
its first five years. The idea was quickly endorsed
by Undersecretary General Strong. The fund
would support projects of truly global dimen-
sions, such as the establishment of monitoring
networks and the curbing of maritime pollution.
Such projects would he coordinated by a special
staff within the UN secretariat. No aid would be
given from this fund to nations to tackle prob-
lems within their own borders.
The US had hoped for approval at Stock-
holm of sti ingent limits on the discharge of
wastes by ocean-going vessels. That objective now
:,,pears no longer possible, however, in view of
the failure of an ad hoc 30-nation conference at
Reykjavik in April to produce the necessary
agreement. All of the leading maritime states
except the USSR were in Reykjavik, but agree-
ment could not be reached because of disputes
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Earth Day in New York, April 1970.
over coverage of --ommercial ventures on and be-
low the ocean floor, military activities including
submarines and sonar devices, and transport
through the Arctic Northwest Passage.
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The industrial powers that are responsible
for so much of the world's pollution are-with the
exception of the US-generally not yet geared up
for national fact-finding efforts in many areas of
environmental concern. Moreover, despite the im-
pressive contributions made by some of these
countries in the preparatory sessions, they appear
reluctant to make a real commitment to the work
at Stockholm. As in so many UN matters, most
nations have dr:ep misgivings about agreements
that might restrict their freedom of action or
might subject their activities-in this case mainly
econo.--,ic-to international scrutiny.
The attitude of many less-developed coun-
tries is reflected in a paper of dem.- nds recently
issued by the 41--member Organization of African
Unity. The vituperative language of the paper
somewhat obscures the fact that the pr,,blems
raised in it aia central to the outcome at Stock-
holm. On funding, for example, the paper cites a
"polluters-must-pay" principle, but goes beyond
it to demand reparations from the colonial na-
tions that long exploited African resources. The
developed countries will not, of course, subscribe
to th:s notion, and they will insist tha any
money that might be forthcoming be earmarked
exclusively for pollution controls and not used as
multilateral assistance in another gtL, ise.
The financial issue is linked to another key
question: should the desire of a poor nation to
get its economy moving be affected t y environ-
mental standards or guidelines applicable world-
wide? Both the Brazilian draft resolution to be
offered at Stockholm and the African paper stress
the permanent sovereignty of states over their
natural resources in a manner that is antagonistic
toward the idea cf imposing international rules. A
Swedish alternative draft resolution, which has
wo : considerable support among Western states,
favors a go-slow approach on imposing uniform
standards.
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Planners had hoped that the Stockholm pro-
ceedings would serve to encourage greater
regional cooperation-especially in the Third
World-in tackling environmental problems. The
African paper at several points emphasizes this
idea. The sensitive issue of sovereignty, however,
clouds the prospect for such cooperation. Brazil,
to cite one example, is not willing to consider at
all the Argentine point of view regarding Brazilian
plans to construct dams on the upper sections of
the Parana River (which later runs through Argen-
tina). Brazil has secured language in the Stock-
holm draft declaration that advocates only the
sharing of information on such projects.
Population control was originally viewed by
the Swedes as one of the topics most worthy of
consideration. It has become apparent that, while
India and several other nations are receptive, the
majority has no desire to debate this issue at
Stockholm. The draft declaration merely states
that population policies are to be those "deemed
appropriate by governments concerned" and
"without prejudice to basic human rights."
Serious deliberation of the topic will probably be
deferred until 1974, the World Population Year,
when a World Population Conference will be held
under the auspices of the Economic and Social
Council.
In light of the preparatory sessions and the
broad problem areas, prospects for definitive
action at Stockholm are not promising.The dec-
laration on the human environment is going to
lack teeth, and much of the "action plan" is
unlikely to be accepted at this time. Nevertheless,
information will be disseminated, views will be
aired, and environmental activities will as a result
be treated in a more formal way by the UN in the
future. Thus, Stockholm is only the first step in a
lengthy sorting-out process that will again test the
capacity of nations to deal with problems that
require cne broadest kind of international co-
oneration a reement.
Special Report
Senator Howard Baker
Shirley Temple Black
Representative John Blatnik
Senator James Buckley
Senator Clifford Case
Representative John Dingell
Counselor John Ehrlichman
Representative Seymour Halpern
Christian Herter, Jr.
Senator Warren Magnuson
Representative Robert McClory
World Bank President Rouert McNamara
Interior Secretary Rogers C.B. Morton
Senator Frank Moss
Senator Gaylord Nelson
Senator Claiborne Pell
S. Dillon Ripley
Laurance Rockefeller
EPA Director William Ruckelshaus
CEQ Chairman Russell Train
Senator Harrison Williams
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