FOURTH* MEETING OF THE PREPARATORY COMMITTEE
MAY 24 - JUNE 7, 2002, BALI, INDONESIA

"The U.S. and its friends might as well come from Mars for all they care about the future of our planet." Daniel Mittler, Friends of the Earth International, after the PrepComm IV talks in Bali. [ Ministers Fail to Agree Earth Summit Plan; PlanetArk news story, June 10 ]

"As these two weeks draw to a close, the Johannesburg Summit is sinking in a sea of indecision and intransigence. The question the world is asking is - how did the governments let us down? Was it incompetence or was it sabotage?" [ Greenpeace press release; June 7 ]

After the failure of PrepComm III, the WSSD-Secreteriat had been asked to set up a new Chairman's Paper, which was discussed on the national level in the run up to the PrepComm IV. This fourth meeting was expected to give input to a concise political document for the Summit. PrepComm IV also discussed the institutional framework for sustainable development, and included Multi-Stakeholder Dialogues and a Ministerial Segment. The People's Forum was held by Civil Society parallel to the official meeting, helping NGOs to gather, to communicate and to form coalitions.

This final preparatory meeting for the World Summit was a pivotal point in determining government commitments to development that boosts global living standards while protecting the environment. The meeting was intented to produce substance on the outcome of the World Summit: the political declaration that government will adopt in Johannesburg; an implementation programme that will determine what governments commit to; and the launch of partnership initiatives that will signal who is prepared to carry out achievable sustainable development projects.

Civil Society was particularly keen to see governments not ending up in a deadlock as they did at the third PrepComm. Negotiations appeared to rather watering down even further the already weak text, while at the same time the usual suspects like the US and its allies, but also OPEC countries and sometimes the EU, blocked any meaningful inclusion of targets and timetables in the Draft Plan of Implementation. Key disagreements between the developed and the developing countries were such contenious issues as finance, termans of trade and globalisation.

The talks eventually ended without final agreement on the Draft Plan of Implementation, although many of the "brackets" around text portions (indicating disagreement over text portions) were gone -- by painstakingly agreeing on the lowest common denominator that, with the US and its allies in the game, contained almost no clear commitments, targets and timeframes. As it became clear that governments were unable to agree on "strong" language (clear commitments etc.), NGOs started to lobby for rather leaving the brackets and take them to Johannesburg than agreeing on even "weaker" language. The remaining "brackets" will undergo negotiation at the World Summit itself.

The political declaration, a less action oriented and more wordy set of commitments, was not negotiated at the PrepComm. Instead, Ministers in Bali drew up the outlines of such a declaration and charged PrepComm Chair Emil Salim with drawing up a draft declaration that would then be negotiated at the World Summit in Johannesburg.

*Four international meetings of the "Preparatory Committee" (PrepComm) prepared the summit on an international level. The first PrepComm discussed the modalities for the preparatory process as well as the Summit itself. The second meeting intended to look at issues such as the implementation of Agenda 21 and reviewing national and regional progress. The third meeting pledged but failed to come up with an outcome document. The fourth meeting re-negotiated the text from the third PrepComm and finally agreed on 80% of the draft outcome text that contains hardly any clear targets or timetables. Pressing for these is what NGOs now demand governments to prepare for in the run up to the World Summit.