WHAT'S HAS HAPPENED IN JOHANNESBURG?

The World Summit has ended on September 4. For about two weeks, Johannesburg had turned into a city full of negotiators, delegates, civil society representatives and business lobbyists. The outcomes of the summit have been hailed and condemned, depending on which side commentators were on.

Below you find a collection of news items that came up during the negotiations. We keep them on this side for reference on the course of the negotiations. The actual outcomes of the summit (which may be different from the bullet points below) are to be found on a different page. Some of our older news items can be found on an archived page.

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"The Plan of Action is not much of a plan, and it contains almost no action. We've spent the last year and half doing damage control. We now have to move forward with a 'coalition of the willing,' those countries, communities, organisations, and people who want to deliver a sustainable energy future." Steve Sawyer, Greenpeace Climate Policy Director ++ [ Exxon buys summit, planet; Greenpeace press release; September 3 ]

++ What's been agreed (September 3): Observers and NGOs note that little has been achieved so far in this biggest UN gathering. However, there is some progress: The loss of biodiversity shall be reduced (earlier drafts: halted) by 2010. The negative impacts of chemicals and toxics are to be minimised by 2020. Damaged fish stocks should recover by 2015 -- where possible. Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) are not explicitly superseded by WTO trade rules. States that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol on climate change call on the other states to do so as well. The loss of natural ressources such as forest shall be stopped as soon as possible (no targets and time frames given). The number of people without access to safe water and sanitation shall be halved by 2015. Ecologically harmful subsidies shall be removed (no time frame given and as already agreed at the last WTO ministerial meeting). ++ [ Action Plan Looks Weak to Activists; International Herald Tribune; September 3 ]

++ Concrete Action: Friends of the Earth has analysed the final text and found precisely two new and specific targets in the whole thing: 1. To halve by 2015 the proportion of people who…do not have access to basic sanitation (para 7); and 2. to establish marine protected networks … including representative networks by 2012 (para 31c). -- And that’s it. In every other case, existing commitments are simply reaffirmed, watered down, or trashed altogether. ++ [ Earth Summit Betrayal; See You All in Mexico; Friends of the Earth press release; September 3 ]

++ Human Rights: The introduction of the Action Plan now has a reference on human rights, the right to development and cultural diversity, declaring them crucial for sustainable development, as well as peace, security and stability. The language is not very strong though, but has to be seen in light of the attempts of the G77 (the developing countries) to have any references to human rights removed from the text.

++ World Solidarity Fund: After delegates had negotiated whether to set up a new finance mechanism for development or rather strengthen existing institutions, the ministers now decided to establish a World Solidarity Fund to fight poverty and promote social and human development in developing countries. The modalities of the new fund are to be defined my the UN General Assembly, while contributions are voluntary.

++ Debt and Financing for Development: The text repeats the agreements of the Financing for Development conference in Monterrey, earlier this year but fails to commit industrialised countries to meaningful action in order to lower the debt of the developing countries to a level so that internationally agreed development goals could be achieved. On Financing for Development, the text even retreats on the Agenda 21. It calls on rich countries (but does not commit them) to achieve the 0.7% GNP target on official development assistance (ODA). The idea of the UN observing ODA commitments has been dropped.

++ Precautionary Principle: The re-negotiations on this principle agreed in Rio at the Earth Summit 1992 had been moved to the minsterial level. The text now downgrades the "precautionary principle" to a "precautionary approach", and while NGOs are disappointed about the weak language and that there is no explicit reference to Multilateral Environmental Agreements, the whole issue has been considered a defeat of the US delegation that tried to completely remove the reference from the text.

++ Energy vs. Water: A trade-off has been achieved with the US, Australia and Japan accepting a clear target to halve the number of people without access to dafe dringking water and sanitation by 2015 -- in return for filling the target with weasel words, the sort of "aiming to achieve" language. Also in return for the water target, the target of increasing the renewable energy share to 10% by 2010 would disappear from the action plan.

++ Renewable Energy: Following long and contentious negotiations, all reference to a target for renewable energy has been dropped from the section of the Action Plan dealing with energy and climate policy. Instead, the text calls for subsidies for "cleaner" fossil fuels and large hydroelectric schemes to be provided to developing countries. Campaigners, and a group of countries led by Brazil, had insisted that the minimum target necessary to combat man-made climate change was for 10% primary energy supply to be produced from new renewable sources by 2010. Despite ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, Japan played an important role in formulating the compromise text together with the United States and OPEC. The deal fails to identify a target and programme of action supporting the provision of energy services to the 2 billion people currently without access to these services. [ EU Caves in to US over Green Pact: Anger as Renewables Lose out to Fossil Fuels; The Guardian news story; September 3 ] ++ [ Earth Summit Deal - a Grey Day for Green Energy? Planet Ark analysis; September 4 ]

++ Biodiversity: The agreed text on biodiversity is weaker than the language adopted by the same ministers in April 2002 at the 6th Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. Paragraph 42 talks of “a significant reduction in the current rate of loss of biological diversity”, a clear step backwards from the UN agreement on biological diversity made just 6 months ago. However, the text still refers to a target, and with the US accepting this, it would seem a logical next step for them to ratify the convention. NGOs consider the paragraph on access and benefit-sharing of the use of biological resources too weak for a binding regime in order to stop multinational corporations from exploiting genetic resources in developing countries.

++ NGOs in Johannesburg: in a declaration, the Eco Equity Coalition, eight major environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth and Greenepeace, complained about the weak outcome of the first week of the summit. They argued, the WTO and the national trade ministers had the environmental agenda hostage to block any progress. The Coalition declared its withdrawal from the negotiations until the environment ministers would take the lead again. Meanwhile, there has been a new text proposal in the contact group on trade, finances and globalisation that puts the relationship between trade, environment and sustainable developme exclusively into the context of the Doha WTO agreements. NGOs are critically looking at the negotiations on three levels: a) advance or retreat on the principles of sustainable development law and policy that were adopted at Rio; b) commit to bold new targets for sustainable development or weaken existing ones; and c) provide the means of implementation to advance sustainable development or subordinate it to decisions taken in other negotiations, such as WTO rounds. [ Earth Summit End of Term Report: Not Satisfactory; Must Do Better; Friends of the Earth press release; September 2 ] ++ [ IUCN Assessment of the State of WSSD Negotiations; September 2 -- pdf; 4 pages ]

++ Protest: Thousands of protesters marched 9 km on Sunday from the poverty-stricken Alexandra Township to the plush World Summit headquarters in Sandton to signal their frustration and disillusionment with the World Summiyt and governments’ lack of initiative in tackling the issues being dis-cussed. The peaceful protest demanded “Land, Food and Jobs” and included South Africa’s Landless People’s Movement and Anti-Privatisation Forum as well as thousands of international summiteers with anners reading, among many other slogans, “No Patents on Life”, “Get the WTO out of WSSD”, “Shame on Bush”, “Debt Cancellation” and “Water: A Common Right”.

++ Action: opposite the venue of the World Summit, Friends of the Earth has unveiled its installation "Hear Our Voice". Six-thousand paper mache statues symbolise the voices of the people who suffer from environmental degradation and social disruption caused by activities of uinregulated transnational corporations. The statues face a six meter tall metal robot that stands for the growing power of those corporations. Klaus Toepfer, head of UNEP, emphasised in a speech the need for global rules for corporations and thanked Friends of the Earth for the reminder -- and took a statue for his offices in Nairobi. [ “Art Action” Voices Need for Binding Corporate Accountability; Friends of the Earth press release; September 1 ]

++ Climate Change: Governments have found a compromise for a reference to the Kyoto Protocol. Until yesterday, the US and others had objected any reference to the climate treaty which they plan not to ratify. The compromise asks countries who did ratify to call on countries who did not to do so, but otherwise repeats the agreement already made at the last climate talks in Bonn, without new commitments. [ Blair Speaks out Against US Refusal to Ratify Kyoto; Independent news story; September 2 ]

++ Political Declaration: What doesn't get into the action plan, may find its way into the political declaration. On September 2 the president of the World Summit issued a new draft declaration that will be negotiated on the ministerial level during the coming days. [ Draft Political Declaration; September 2 -- pdf; 10 pages ]

++ Trade and Globalisation: The free trade agenda clearly dominates the talks at the World Summit. Enshrining the predominance of the WTO over trade, environment and development was averted. when ministers rejected clauses in the summit's plan of action which would have given the World Trade Organisation (WTO) powers over international treaties on the environment. However, Governments failed to explicitly affirm the authority and autonomy of Multilateral Environmental Agreements. [ Plans to Promote GM Crops Defeated; Independent news story; September 2 ] ++ The text does not recommend, as hoped by NGOs, to establish a new international framework on binding rules for corporations and the language on removing export distorting or ecologically hamrful subsidies is without targets and clear commitments.