Dr. GOSSEN welcomed the audience and intro- duced the Vice Chairmen, Dr. BERNARD TRAMIER, Corporate Director of Environmental Affairs for Elf Aquitaine, Paris, France; Dr. MICHAL WILCZYNSKI, Under Secretary of State, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Natural Resources and Forestry, Warsaw, Poland; and scien- tific secretary Dr. TRYGVE LARSEN, Senior Vice President, Det Norske Veritas, Hovik, Norway. Dr. GOSSEN then briefly introduced the forum authors who were later introduced more fully prior to their presentations: Mr. CHARLES DIBONA, President & CEO, American Petroleum Institute, Washington, D.C., U.S.A. Mr. KLAUS KOHL- HASE, Head Health, Safety and Environment, British Petroleum Company, London, U.K. Mr. BJORN WEIBYE, Executive Vice President, Det Norske Veritas, Hovik, Norway. Mr. LUIS FERN- ANDO DE ANGULO, Community Affairs Manager, Occidental de Colombia, Bogota, Colom- bia. Mr. HEINRICH BONING, Head Safety and Environment, BEB Erdgas und Erdol, Hanover, Germany. Dr. GOSSEN also introduced the two forum par- ticipants who provided updates on two WPC Task Force activities: Mr. ARNALDO SALAZAR, Presi- dent & CEO of PDV Marina, Caracas, Venezuela and Chair of the WPCs Environmental Affairs Com- mittee Task Force 1, Analysis & Assessment of Codes of Environmental Conduct. Dr. GEORGE GOVIER, President, Govier Consulting Services Ltd., Calgary, Canada and Chair of the WPC's Environmental Affairs Committee Task Force 2, Survey of the Petroleum-related Environmental Poli- cies of the WPC Member Countries. Dr. GOSSEN then proceeded to introduce and frame the forum topic by providing an overview. He noted that the theme for the Congress, ‘Petroleum in a world of sustainable growth; challenges and opportunities’ is particularly relevant to the environ- mental forum because the concept of sustainable development is receiving global recognition as a key mechanism to guide future development through integrating environmental and economic decision- making. He stressed that this means striking an appropriate balance between environmental and eco- nomic considerations. Dr. GOSSEN noted that during the opening cere- monies President Mai recognized the need for eco- nomic growth in an environmentally sustainable way and Prime Minister Brundtland referred to the global challenge of achieving sustainable develop- ment. Dr. GOSSEN stated that each of the key sectors of our society that are engaged in the pursuit of sustain- able development have targeted specific objectives:
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business is seeking meaningful, science-based environmental objectives established by regulators and the opportunity to achieve them in a voluntary, non-perscriptive and market-driven fashion.
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Regulators are seeking widespread public acceptance of their decisions.
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Non-governmental organizations NGOs repr
