MAIN COMMITTEE: The Main Committee will convene this morning to address all outstanding phrases, paragraphs and chapters of Agenda 21. Since this is the last day that the Main Committee is scheduled to meet, it is possible that the Committee will meet all day and well into the night. Among the issues still to be agreed upon (and not discussed by the contact groups) are the call for a international convention on desertification; the phrase "people under occupation" in Agenda 21; the military establishment and hazardous waste; environmentally [safe and] sound technology" and the Rio Declaration.
FINANCIAL RESOURCES AND MECHANISMS: If the negotiations and drafting last night proceeded as had been hoped in the informal-informal sessions, a new text should be transmitted to the regional groups this morning. This text would then be forwarded to the Financial Resources contact group scheduled (as of last night) for this morning and then to the Main Committee later in the day.
FOREST PRINCIPLES: Although this contact group has finished its work, bracketed portions of the forest principles document may still have to be resolved in other contact groups as well as in the Main Committee. When this document reaches the Main Committee today, look for some tough chairing by Tommy Koh and some equally strong diplomatic sparring from the key delegations such as India, Malaysia, the US and several others.
ATMOSPHERE: The contact group was expected to have completed its work last night on the Atmosphere chapter, and in particular, the energy section of Programme Area B "Promoting sustainable development". If the group has not succeeded in resolving the outstanding issues, they may choose to continue their work in the contact group or defer bracketed text to the Main Committee.
BIODIVERSITY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY: The Main Committee will address the outstanding issues from these two chapters. The one bracketed paragraph from the biodiversity chapter pertains to the rights of countries of origin, and the two bracketed paragraphs from the biotechnology text refer to liability and compensation.
LEGAL INSTRUMENTS: If Tuesday's informal consultations have succeeded in resolving the environmental crimes paragraph, the contact group will be able to send clean text to the Main Committee for ratification.
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