Article 13 Environment and sustainable management of natural resources including energy

working upstream in assisting developing countries to achieve the MDG on environmental sustainability through capacity building for environmental integration in developing countries, supporting civil society actors, local authorities and consultative platforms, environmental monitoring and assessment, developing innovative approaches and twinning to share experience and reinforce cooperation in these areas with key countries;

promoting implementation of Community initiatives and agreed commitments at international and regional level and/or of a transboundary character through support for sustainable development including activities to address current and future climate change issues, biodiversity, desertification, forests, land degradation fisheries and marine resources, compliance with environmental standards (for products and production processes), sound chemicals and wastes management, fight against pollution, sustainable production and consumption and environment-related migration. This also includes efforts to promote good forest governance and combat illegal logging, particularly through FLEGT, and innovative activities for the conservation and sustainable management of forests with active participation of local communities and forest dependent peoples.

With regard to water, the thematic programme will aim at establishing a framework for long term protection of water resources and promoting sustainable water use through support for policy coordination;

better integration of environmental objectives through support for methodological work, enhancing environmental expertise available for policy work, integration and innovative actions of the Community and promoting coherence;

strengthening environmental governance and supporting international policy development by working for coherence between the environmental and the other pillars of international governance for sustainable development and by assisting regional and international environmental monitoring and assessment, providing additional support to the Secretariats of multilateral environmental agreements, promoting effective compliance and enforcement measures for multilateral environmental agreements including through capacity building, supporting international organisations and processes, supporting civil society and policy think tanks, and improving the efficiency of international negotiations;

supporting sustainable energy options in partner countries and regions, through integration of sustainable energy in development plans and strategies, developing institutional support and technical assistance, creating a favourable legislative and policy framework to attract new business and investors in renewable energy, enhancing the role of energy as a means to create income generation for the poor, promoting innovative financing approaches, and encouraging regional cooperation between governments, non-governmental organisations and the private sector in the above areas. The Community's strategic actions will give particular encouragement to the use of renewable energy sources, increased energy efficiency, and the development of appropriate energy regulatory frameworks in the countries and regions concerned and the replacement of especially damaging energy sources by others which are less so.