US and Russian NGOs Begin Work on Moscow Social Forum

(5 March 2003 — Washington, DC and Moscow, Russia) The two organizations which have agreed to organize the upcoming Moscow Social Forum, The Center for Russian Environmental Policy and the U.S.-based Environmental Defense, today held a coordination meeting in which they discussed major milestones in preparation for the Forum.

The groups have pledged to undertake broad public outreach to establish working groups to prepare background materials, including papers, presentations, and informational brochures, for distribution at the Social Forum. The working groups will also work to formulate recommendations for officials and decisionmakers who will be present at the Forum. The two groups are co-organizers of the Social Forum, which is being held in conjunction with the World Climate Change Conference, at the end of September of this year.

The Center for Russian Environmental Policy and Environmental Defense will solicit the help of experts from various fields from around the world for the working groups, which will be formed over the next few weeks. The groups will concentrate on the following topics of great importance to the environment and climate change mitigation: negative consequences of climate change on humans and ecosystems, with particular emphasis on destruction of ecosystems and native environments in many northern territories; positive ancillary benefits of greenhouse gas emission reduction policies, including the ability to control associated conventional pollutants and modernize economies; and economic benefits of the Kyoto Protocol, especially for developing and transition economies.

The next organizational step will be a meeting in Moscow on March 13 to discuss further details of forming the Working Groups, including establishing a website for public outreach.