299. Memorandum From Acting Secretary of State Johnson to President
Nixon1
2
Washington, August 24, 1970.
Subject:
- U.S. Policy toward the Major International Organizations Dealing
with the Environment
Recommendation:
That the United States (a) exercise affirmative leadership in each of the
three major international organizations dealing with the environment—the
United Nations, the OECD and NATO—; (b) encourage each organization to
develop its special competences to the fullest, having due regard for
political and economic realities and the potential performance of each
organization.
Approve
Disapprove
Background:
Following your recent conversation with members of the Council on
Environmental Quality in which you emphasized the need to consider
environmental problems in the global context, Chairman Russell Train, in consultation with
Daniel P. Moynihan and the
Special Assistant for Environmental Affairs, Christian A. Herter, Jr., recommended
that a memorandum be prepared with a description of the major
international organizations dealing with the environment and assessing
how the United States might wisely allocate its priorities among these
organizations. We sought this kind of an appraisal as a guideline to our
officials at home and
[Page 2]
abroad
at a time when international activity on the environment is increasing,
when planning for important international conferences in 1971 and 1972
is advancing rapidly, and when two of these organizations, the OECD and the UN’s Economic Commission for Europe have reorganized their
structure to concentrate more effectively on environmental problems.
The appraisal concludes that the United States benefits by continued
substantial participation in the work being done on the environment
within the United Nations, the OECD and
NATO. Each of these organizations
has special and unique attributes, experience and potential for dealing
with various aspects of the environmental problems that will face us in
the coming years. Each organization provides an important framework to
facilitate United States cooperation with other nations. The United
States has the opportunity in each organization to provide significant
assistance and advice in making technology available to deal with
specific environmental problems. Equally, this country has much to learn
from other nations in areas where they appear to have greater expertise,
e.g. regional planning in land use, population distribution and urban
planning.
The appraisal recommends that the United States encourage the fullest and
most practical development of the special attributes within each
organization, with due regard to political and economic realities and
the actual potential of each. It recommends that as areas of strength
within each organization develop, the United States give appropriate
support to those developments which promise to have a genuine impact in
solving environmental issues. At the same time the U.S. should strive to
achieve mutual enforcement of their environmental activities according
to an overall U.S. plan so as to assure effective utilization of limited
fiscal and manpower resources in furtherance of U.S. interests.
[Page 3]
A summary description of the three organizations and of the work in which
they are or plan to be engaged is enclosed. The description also
appraises the special strengths and competence of each organization.
U Alexis Johnson
Acting Secretary
[Page 4]
Enclosure
Summary Description and Appraisal of the Major
International Organizations Dealing with the Environment
There are three principal international organizations dealing with
environmental problems. They are the United Nations proper as well
as the regional U.N. Organization for Europe (the ECE) and the U.N. specialized agencies;
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); and NATO, through the Committee on the Challenges of Modern
Society (CCMS).
- 1.
- United Nations
- (a)
-
The 1972 Stockholm Conference.
Sweden will host a major U.N. Conference on the
Human Environment in Stockholm in June 1972. The
decision to hold this Conference reflects the
intensified work on environmental problems
undertaken in the General Assembly, the Economic and
Social Council, and the U.N. Secretariat, resulting,
for example, in research, planning, and development
assistance programs on the urban environment and
non-renewable natural resources and on the causes
and impact of pollution on a worldwide scale. The
President’s public endorsement of this Conference
has expressed U.S. recognition that this forum is of
the greatest importance for mobilizing the nations
of the world to deal effectively with certain
environmental problems as intrinsically
international problems.
It is the only conference of this kind in which the
less developed countries will participate, and it is
of utmost importance that these countries take part
in a substantive way which would reflect their real,
although still largely unacknowledged, self-interest
in joint action to improve the environment.
[Page 5]
The U.N. Conference can lead to one or more
conventions treating international environmental
problems and may establish an international
organization of a new kind to handle these
problems.
In short, the Stockholm Conference provides a focus
for work on broad issues of environmental policies
and administration in the international field. Its
success in realistic and lasting terms will be
important not only for the reputation of the United
Nations itself but also for the work of
international cooperation in this field over the
next decade.
- (b)
-
The U.N. Economic Commission for
Europe (ECE).
The ECE has planned
a conference of industrialized nations from the East
and West for May 1971 in Prague. ECE is a principal forum
in which East/West relations can be improved.
Environmental problems common to East/West
industrialized nations can often transcend political
differences and ECE
provides a setting in which continuous contacts with
Eastern Europe and the USSR can be maintained. Further, the U.S.
has pushed hard—including through NATO
CCMS—to upgrade the
participation in the Prague Conference to that of
ministerial level, and Chairman Train has been
designated to lead the U.S. delegation at
Prague.
Although the ECE,
because of its politically divergent membership,
cannot itself be expected to undertake dramatic
operational tasks on the environment, it has a
respectable capability for joint studies leading to
agreement on regulations and standards. Its
reorganized Secretariat Staff should be able to
focus more systematically on questions of the
environment. Under the leadership of its energetic
Yugoslav Secretary-General, Janos Stanovnik, the
ECE will
unquestionably play a useful and more active role in
consequence of Prague; and Stanovnik hopes that
this conference can be preparatory to that of the
U.N. in Stockholm.
As planning for the Conference proceeds, the U.S.
will explore the attitudes of the USSR and the most
interested Eastern European states, particularly
Romania, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, and
identify possible
[Page 6]
new areas for realistic
East-West environmental cooperation within the
ECE framework.
Prospects for this are reasonably bright, since both
NATO and the
Warsaw Pact have acknowledged the value of
environmental cooperation. The Warsaw Pact states
will doubtless push hard to secure East German
participation in the ECE Conference. The U.S. handling of this
sensitive issue will hinge in part on the state of
inter-German relations and in part on the course of
international negotiations affecting Germany in
which the U.S. and other Western governments are
currently involved.
- (c)
- United Nations and the Specialized
Agencies. The specialized agencies of the U.N.
have by and large compiled impressive records of
achievement, on a sound technical and non-political
basis, in such fields as land use and conservation of
natural resources (FAO),
atmospheric monitoring, disaster prediction services,
and weather forecasting information (WMO), international health
problems of the broadest range (WHO), certain aspects of oil pollution on
the high seas (IMO), noise (ICAO), and monitoring of radioactive
pollution (IAEA).
Clearly, we should continue to take an active part in
the work of these agencies and in addition should
consider ways in which their individual fields of
specialization can be more effectively related one to
the other and placed in the broader context of world
environmental quality.
- 2.
-
The OECD, whose membership includes the
nations of Western Europe in addition to Japan, Canada and
the United States, brings together all the major
non-Communist industrial powers in a forum dedicated to
developing international economic cooperation. It has been
engaged for a number of years in work on environmental
problems, and is developing the particular experience and
professional competence needed for analyzing the economic
aspects of environmental control.
An Environment Committee has recently been established to
study a wide range of economic questions related
[Page 7]
to environmental
problems and to coordinate the work of the relevant sections
of the Organization on these issues, in order to offer
governments specific policy-oriented conclusions and
recommendations for action. The Committee will appraise the
possible effects of environmental measures on international
trade, develop and improve indicators of economic and social
well-being, and analyze how the diversion of resources to
combating environmental degradation might affect economic
growth and production. Such economic and social problems
have international aspects that will require the development
of close cooperation among the developed countries for
effective solutions, a function for which the OECD is especially suited.
There is no doubt that the U.S., as a major trading nation,
has a vital interest in the work of the OECD in general, as well as in
specific OECD activities in
the environment field such as air pollution, water
re-sources management, unintended occurrence of pesticides
in the environment, noise, urban development and trans-port
policy. OECD Secretary
General Emile van Lennep takes a strong personal interest in
strengthening this aspect of OECD work, and the U.S. strongly supports the
development of this improved OECD capability and the Organization’s emphasis
on the economic issues of the environment.
- 3.
-
NATO/CCMS: Established in 1969 as a direct
result of the President’s initiative, the CCMS has effectively tackled
specific issues such as air and open water pollution, flood
and earthquake disaster relief, water pollution, and road
safety.
Despite initial reservations on the part of some NATO members, CCMS has shown that the “pilot country” concept applied
to environmental problems, is an effective managerial device to cut
through international bureaucracy and achieve specific results in
clearly defined areas within a specific time period under the
leadership of one or two interested countries. The NATO capacity to gain access to
authoritative political levels and its orientation toward action
have also given through CCMS a new
kind of impetus to work on the environment.
[Page 8]
Because of its derivation as a major Presidential initiative, and the
importance we have accorded CCMS
politically and in the environmental field, the United States should
give special attention to pilot projects launched under CCMS aegis to assure their timely
success.
CCMS was conceived primarily, not
as an operational agency, but rather as a catalyst that would
generate action by member countries either individually or in
appropriate international organizations. The unique character of
CCMS deriving from its links to
high policy levels in Allied Governments renders it most suitable as
a primary initiator for major innovative programs and policies
requiring a high degree of coordination among the technically
advanced and industrialized Allied countries. To achieve our
political and environmental purposes, it is imperative that projects
under CCMS sponsorship be given
special support with respect to obtaining the cooperation of our
Allies. Thus not only is our full commitment needed, but we must
continue our efforts to win full Allied support.
The U.S. believes that the momentum and experience gained in this
framework represent valuable assets with useful implications for
other international organizations. The CCMS effort warrants our continued strong support. Any
sign that the U.S. is slackening in this support would create doubts
in the minds of our Allies as to our willingness to follow through
on our commitments, in this case a Presidential initiative, which
NATO Secretary General
Brosio and several Allied
political leaders have supported.
