June 11, 2002
WITH top-level talks on a development blueprint for the planet ending in disagreement in Bali, it will be up to the delegates attending the World Summit on Sustainable Development in August and September to finalise an action plan for protecting the environment and tackling poverty worldwide.
The Johannesburg conference, which kicks off on 26 August, is being billed as the largest-ever United Nations gathering, with up to 65 000 delegates and between 80 and 100 heads of state expected to descend on South Africa's commercial capital.
It will be the most significant international meeting on the environment and the problems of the developing world since the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro 10 years ago. While it aims to review progress since Rio, it will also turn the spotlight on problems in the developing world, in particular the eradication of poverty.
But it won't be easy going at the Summit after more than 6 000 delegates, including 118
environment and finance ministers, in 10 days of debate at the Indonesian resort island of Bali, failed to reach full agreement on a draft action plan for sustainable development, putting off some thorny issues for the Johannesburg event.
Emil Salim, a former Indonesian environment minister and chairman of the Bali talks – which lasted from 27 May to 7 June – said that wealthy nations were blocking proposals to commit to binding agreements for implementing environmental programmes. Other sticking points included free trade, agricultural subsidies and the amount of aid to be given to poorer nations.
Developing countries are pushing for more aid from developed countries, arguing that an action plan cannot be implemented without funding.
However, Salim said that about 80 percent of the action plan was agreed, and that a deal could still be reached in Johannesburg. "This is not a disaster … It's a battle, a conflict of interest between developed and developing
countries," Salim told the Jakarta Post.
United States criticised
Environmental delegates were critical of the United States and other rich nations, accusing them of acting in the interests of multinational companies, and saying that what was agreed at Bali would do little to help the estimated three billion people - half the world's population - who live on less than $2 a day.
The United States in particular was criticised for insisting that countries do more to fight corruption before receiving more Western development aid. Geoffrey Lean, environment editor of British newspaper The Indendent, was scathing of the US, arguing that the Bush administration had "rejected any new targets for reducing poverty and, in effect, refused to negotiate, stating its position and challenging the rest of the world to take it or leave it.
"It blocked plans to halve the number of the world's people without any sanitation – a situation that causes a
child to die every 10 seconds from water-borne disease – and to double those who have electricity and other modern forms of energy."
According to the UN, at least 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water, 2.4 billion lack adequate sanitation, while every year more than three million people die from water-related diseases and 815 million go hungry.
The deadlock in Bali came despite a last-ditch attempt to salvage the negotiations with a compromise document by South Africa's environment and tourism minister, Valli Moosa.
Moosa's compromise document, which revised a chapter dealing with finance and trade issues, was reportedly accepted by a negotiation bloc that included China and Indonesia, but got a mixed reception from EU countries, and was opposed by a negotiation bloc that included the US.
Drive to get world leaders to attend
According to a UN statement, 45 countries say their leaders will attend the Johannesburg
Summit, while another 40 say their leaders are likely to attend. Among the undecided are the United States, India, China and Russia.
The figures come from a survey by US-based NGO the Natural Resources Defense Council, based on interviews with representatives of 175 countries.
Charlotte Youngsblood of the Earth Day Network told the UN that a global campaign is under way to persuade world leaders to come to Johannesburg, and that so far the campaign has been signed by 1 160 organisations and over a million people.
Jan Pronk, the Netherlands' environment minister and the United Nations' special envoy for the Summit, he has been touring the globe since late last year, calling on world leaders to attend the Summit.
In a recent interview with the Jakarta Post, Pronk described the Summit as "betting on two horses. As far as the political situation is concerned, we have an anti-terrorism policy, a security policy, a coalition against terrorism, and that is taking
shape and some countries are very strongly oriented toward that.
"Betting on two horses means that at the same time, countries are also interested in taking away possible causes of violence, are willing to approach the backgrounds of violence, are willing to ask serious questions in regard to inequality and injustice.
"That is betting on two horses. It is not certain how long that will last, and that is the reason it is necessary to have some success as far as the second track is concerned, that is Johannesburg, in order to keep it attractive to governments. There is momentum, but momentum can fade very easily."
SouthAfrica.info reporter. Sources: Jakarta Post, The Independent, The United Nations' Johannesburg Summit 2002 web site.
