Address by the President of the Republic of Finland

Mr. Martti Ahtisaari,

at the Opening of the Second European Conference on Environment and Health

on 20 June 1994 at 10.00 a.m.

Excellencies

Ladies and Gentlemen

It gives me a great satisfaction to welcome you all to Finland and to Helsinki as participants in the Second European Conference on Environment and Health.

This Conference will offer you an unparalleled opportunity to help ensure a healthy living and working environment for our children and grandchildren.

Excellencies

Ladies and Gentlemen

Economic and social conditions between and within nations create at least three areas of great concern as to their relation to health and environment.

Firstly, most people in the world are poor and a great majority of them live in developing countries. Their basic needs for food, shelter, security and human dignity are far from being satisfied. This was very clearly stated already at the United Nations Conference on Human Environment in Stockholm 1972 - the first in the series of the UN special conferences. It was explicitly reconfirmed twenty years later by the Head of States at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro.

In the implementation and follow-up process of the Agenda 21, adopted at the Rio Summit, a review of the first five sectors recently took place. All five sectors are relevant to environmental health.

In terms of environmental health poverty means malnutrition, highfrequency of food- and water-borne diseases, bad housing conditions, lack of sanitation and uncontrolled population growth. In urban areas unemployment has to be added to these problems.

In ecological and environmental terms poverty is closely connected to decertification, destruction of forests, waste problems and water and air pollution. If the relations between population, natural resources, environment and development are not managed in a sustainable manner, people can only dream of better future.

Secondly, in the recent years we all have witnessed profound changes in Europe. The barriers that existed for years fell one after the other, allowing us to co-operate with each other in a more comprehensive way. At the same time Europe faces many political, economic, environmental and social issues that must be addressed together because national approach is insufficient.

Indeed, changes in social structures have revealed many problems both in the environment and health conditions. In the renovation of industries, energy facilities, agriculture and other production struc-tures environmental and health factors must be duly observed if one wishes to achieve real progress.

Thirdly, in countries with high level of consumption the distribution of wealth is often less than equal between different population groups. In the industrialized countries it seems to be of vital importance to evaluate and to change production and consumption patterns towards strengthening the positive elements in a sustainable social development.

Indeed, work for sustainable consumption has many common features with endeavours towards sustainable population growth. Both have direct effects on our environment and health. Both are deeply intertwined with basic human instincts and cultures. Both require a deep understanding of our world. Both can be misused in the competition between countries and governments for power and wealth.

Solutions are difficult and require readiness to take a fresh look at our traditional values as well as deep sympathy and understanding for our fellow humans, in terms of both present and future generations. Therefore, acceptable solutions for these problems require reassessment by the international community, governments and the population in general of how to better organise our life together.

The relation of health to environment is complicated, and the immediate relationship may be different from the long-term impact. It is usually supposed that good health and good environment correlate directly with each other. On the other side, in regard to environment-borne effects on health, scientific facts and beliefs are often contradictory. But what is a good environment?

Excellencies

Ladies and Gentlemen

A good environment must at least give every human being the possibility to satisfy his or her basic needs. But providing just for that may already put a heavy burden on the environment. In order to avoid that as much as possible it is necessary to integrate environmental policy with other sectorial policies.

Here we are dealing with the very basic questions of ethics and moral values as well. After some lean years people in the developed countries are craving for more growth and increased consumption. To achieve sustainable - not always quantitative but qualitative - growth without endangering the right of future generations to live in a decent environment is the most important task of mankind. Obviously, peace is a necessary prerequisite for this task.

We must the have a vision for the next millennium, we must foresee the year 2000 and a time far beyond it. We must search for and find a way which is acceptable to the great majority of people. Despite all population problems, children are our future treasure that must be cherished. It is our duty to strive for a good and healthy environment for them.

Excellencies,

I hope that your decisions during this Conference will strengthen the long term sustainable development towards better health and environment in Europe. I trust that your decisions will prove beneficial also globally.

I hereby declare the Conference as opened and wish it every success.