Roundtable entitled “Lessons of international cooperation efforts for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in the Chernobyl affected regions"

Ambassador AMBRAZEVICH, [Belarus]
Ambassador BORODAVKIN,
Ambassador KLYMENKO,
Mr. BACH,
Mr. SULTANOGLU,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Welcome to today’s Roundtable on “Lessons of international cooperation efforts for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in the Chernobyl affected regions”. I sincerely thank the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Belarus and UNDP for organizing this important event.

Most of us will remember the moment they learnt about the devastating accident in Chernobyl in 1986. On 26 April a power surge caused a series of explosions that set off a fire. We are all well aware of what followed: radioactive material was released in quantities 400 times more than by the amount of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. An estimated 8,4 million people in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia were exposed to the radiation – that is more than the population of Switzerland. Some 350,000 people were forced to leave their homes in severely contaminated areas. Millions continue to live in affected areas. The disaster has had a long-term impact on the health of these citizens, notably also on their mental health, as WHO notes.

From the very beginning, the United Nations provided emergency relief and rehabilitation assistance, supporting the people living in the affected areas. It helped, for example, to assess the nuclear safety and environmental conditions of the contaminated area, and to diagnose the various medical conditions that resulted from the accident. It supported remediation of affected cities and farmland, returning it to agricultural and economic activity. The UN also focused on raising the awareness of the area’s inhabitants, providing them with information on how to protect themselves from radionuclides found in the environment and agricultural products.

Our organization continues to provide assistance to this day: In Ukraine, for example, it helps with the decommissioning of the reactors and radioactive waste management at the Chernobyl site. In Belarus, it assists with forest management in areas affected by the accident and helps national counterparts to implement environmentally sound remedial technologies.

The UN Action Plan on Chernobyl to 2016 and the framework of the UN Decade of Recovery and Sustainable Development of the Affected Regions have provided important guidance. The Inter-Agency Task Force on Chernobyl has coordinated efforts between UN agencies and observers across the three most affected countries.

In 2013, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution tabled by Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine entitled “Strengthening of international cooperation and coordination of efforts to study, mitigate and minimize the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster”. The resolution requested continued recovery efforts and called for the consideration of international cooperation after 2016. Today’s Roundtable seeks to contribute to this discussion, based on the experiences that the different agencies will share.

The post-2016 agenda will be inspired by the lessons learnt since the accident in Chernobyl – about how to address the multifaceted consequences of nuclear emergencies and how to prevent them. Over the past 30 years, we have become more aware of the seriously harmful consequences of natural and human-made disasters. This is forcing us to look for solutions, including stronger prevention. Last year we adopted the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. Later in the year world leaders adopted a number of other major agreements, notably the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes important elements such as energy and health. Our joint efforts and activities for the post-2016 period in the region affected by the Chernobyl accident should therefore be embedded in these important frameworks.

Ladies and gentlemen, the damage caused by the tsunami following the earthquake in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in 2011 – the largest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl – is a painful reminder that we will never be safe from nuclear accidents, not even in the most technically advanced contexts.

Even though nuclear safety is primarily governed by individual States, nuclear disasters transcend borders. Collaboration on a global scale is a must. Besides Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, the Chernobyl accident impacted, for example, also the Scandinavian countries. The answer to this challenge has hence to be transnational.

Experiences such as Chernobyl and Fukushima have enhanced global cooperation on nuclear safety. Important international legal instruments were adopted, including the Convention on Nuclear Safety. An IAEA peer review system has been established where international teams of experts advise countries on the operational safety of their nuclear reactors or the effectiveness of their regulatory system.

We need to continue our efforts to support long-term rehabilitation and to provide development perspectives to affected populations. We need to carry on promoting international research efforts to better understand the consequences of nuclear accidents, including in the long-term. And we need to meet the continued need for financing rehabilitation projects in the affected regions. Today’s discussion provides an excellent occasion to address these and other issues and to give momentum to our commitment that disasters such as in Chernobyl and Fukushima may never happen again. We owe it to the victims and their families of these and similar accidents.

I wish you all fruitful deliberations.

Thank you very much.