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WHAT'S ON ARCHIVE++ 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 Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) are not explicitly superseded by WTO trade rules.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. ++ Global People's Forum: For those who cannot or do not want
to attend the Summit proper, about an hour from the Summit is the Global
People's Forum, where civil society bursts with diversity. At the Forum,
the vast exposition hall has a bewildering diversity of exhibits -- but
only a few visitors. The Ubonya Farmers Association, Korean Council for
Local Agenda 21, Norwegian Forum for Environment and Development, Jane
Goodall Institute, and the Jewish National Fund are among the hundreds
of booths. Even the People's Forum is semi-privatized though, with a cost
of $150 for registration. This may explain why the Forum has been lightly
attended so far. Just 50 people were on hand to see legend Miriam Makeba
sing, even after Nelson Mandela himself cancelled an appearance at a nearby
competing locale. At the Forum deep rifts around Israel and Palestine,
that characterised the Durban World Conference Against Racism last year,
have emerged. They were most notable at a press conference held by Palestinian
supporters at the People's Summit. ++ ++ Human Rights: Bad news for human rights activists: the G77 seem to be keen on having removed all references to human rights and existing agreements on human rights from the draft political declaration. ++ Toxics: At the negotiations on toxics, the US and G77 are trying to weaken the language on targets and timetables and instead to promote voluntary action for reducing effects on human health and the environment. As with other sectors, the precautionary principle is in danger of being deleted from the records. ++ ++ Energy: The United States opposes any target for renewable energy. Brazil has proposed a target of new renewable energy amounting to 10% of primary energy supply by 2010., excluding large hydro and traditional biomass. They are backed by Norway, Philippines, Mexico, Morocco and others. The European Union has failed to support such a progress on renewable energy expansion, supporting instead a weak target that could encourage the construction of socially and ecologically damaging large dams in developing countries. Saudi Arabia has tried to get other Arab states to dump on this plan, and denounced Morocco for selling out Arab interests by being green on this question. ++ Climate: NGOs demand that the Kyoto Protocol must be mentioned in the action plan from the Summit, with a commitment to entry into force by the end of 2002 included. Japanese NGOs have written to the japanese environment minister that Japan, one of the reluctant countries when it comes to climate issues, supports the inclusion in the text of a commitment to the entry into force of the Protocol. At the same time, delegates await the US’s alternative language on climate change, which will try to take references to the Kyoto Protocol out of the final text. The publication was delayed, and NGO suspect that the US had problems in trying to draft words, which appear to be concerned about the issue while removing all references to practical action. The US Administration was slammed for climate inaction at a Summit press conference by Democratic Congressmen Miller, Kucinich, and Blumenauer. The current text proposed by Norway calls on all countries to ratify Kyoto. Russia’s ratification (promised by President Putin for months) is essential if the Protocol is to enter into force. The EU is backing Norway, but there is rumoured to be some internal argument on this. ++ ++ Trade and Globalisation: There are still arguments about how
globalisation should be defined, although language on globalisation has
been lifted straight from the outcome document of the Doha WTO ministerial
meeting ++ NGOs slammed the EU and US for using bullying tactics to
promote a free trade agenda at the expense of environmental protection,
poverty alleviation and sustainable development -- all of which should
be the priorties of the Earth Summit -- instead of ensuring that multilateral
environmental agreements (MEAs) are not made subservient to WTO trade
rules. NGOs call that the autonomy and authority of the international
agreements has to be explicitly affirmed at Johannesburg. NGOs did hope
that the EU in particular would show leadership on this issue, after EU
Commissioner Pascal Lamy welcomed a corresponding NGO statement in
the past. As it seems, dangerous text has been included (in paragraph
20) that would privilege WTO rules over MEAs. The EU has also tried to
insist that talks on MEAs should take place through the WTO Doha process.
++ Eco-labelling (which has clear implications for genetically modified
food) is controversial, with the current text making such schemes voluntary
and demanding strict WTO compliance. Given the continuing dis pute of
the European Union with the United
States (and recently with the G77 who favour
a voluntary approach) over GMO labeling, the right for countries to
put the interests of their consumers above those of the global trade system
is at stake here. ++ Language related to the precautionary principle,
one of the key principles agreed at the Rio
Earth Summit, is in danger of being weakened, and the current draft
implies subordination to WTO rules. The EU is failing
to defend it properly in the trade chapter. Australia and Canada, supported
by the US are making it a priority to ensure WTO compatibility of the
entire Earth Summit text. ++ Apparently agreement has now been
reached on 99% of the globalisation, trade and finance issues. The remaining
sticking points are whether the conference should call for additional
progress on phasing out agricultural subsidies - over and above that agreed
at the Doha trade talks. ++ [ GlobalisatiON!
and ON! and ON! Daily Eco Equity newsletter: August 29 ] ++ Corporate Accountability: The G77 reintroduced the call for an inter-governmental framework on this issue. Norway during the negotiations amended the G77 proposal. However, the G77 have difficulties accepting some references to existing international agreements and have weakened its stance recently, although many G77 countries continue to see this as a key issue for the summit. Although now using stronger language than the G77 or the US, the European Union has been one of the main stumbling blocks in achieving progress on this issue. It remains committed solely to voluntary approaches, which the UN Environment Programme recently criticised as insufficient. Environment, human rights, development NGOs and labour organisations are unanimous in condemning the failure of the voluntary approach -- i.e. letting corporations regulate themselves on social and environmental issues. NGOs believe that agreement on a negotiation process for global rules for business is a critical test of the success or failure of the World Summit. ++ [ Summary of current negotiations on Corporate Accountability; August 28 -- rtf 2 pages ] ++ Forestry and Biodiversity: The UN Forum on Forests and its predecessors agreed 350 action points – but while some countries support action on deforestation others effectively promote timber trade. The UN Convention on Biodiversity is a much stronger instrument, but has not been ratified by the United States. At the recent Hague ministerial meeting on the convention, around 100 ministers signed an agreement committing states to introduce measures by 2010 to reverse loss of biodiversity. EU ministers have attempted to include this commitment in the World Summit text but it currently remains in brackets (i.e. not agreed). Rumour has it that this is a target that could be agreed here, erving as a test case for whether the Johannesburg Plan of Action deserves its name. ++ The agreed text recognises that small community initiatives to protect forests are the most effective. It also states that the UN Forum on Forests and Biodiversity Convention must be made consistent, leading to more biologically diverse forests. However, the agreed text also promotes plantation forestry, which damages biodiversity and is therefore inconsistent with the remainder of the text. ++ ++ Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs): The 192 Type II
public-private partnerships include one which is clearly designed
to promote GMOs as part of “sustainable agriculture”. Croplife,
a plant-based science industry organisation based in Brussels which includes
Monsanto, Sygenta and others, will run an e-mail learning system for agriculture
professionals, who will pass on the results to small farmers around the
world. Other players in the partnership include APRDC, based in Bangkok. ++
Two forms of agriculture are in conflict at the World Summit. One
is ecological and smallholder farming, practiced ++ Common Responsibilities: At the Rio Earth Summit 1992, the world’s Governments signed up to the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities”. This means that every state has a common duty to look after the planet, but future action will vary depending on their current economic power and impact on the planet. Already at the PrepComm IV meeting for this year’s Summit, the US insisted that these words be placed in brackets, where they so far remain. ++ The United States: The US – often supported by Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (the JUSCAN group) – continues to be the single biggest block on progress at the Earth Summit. The US:
++ Informal briefings and meetings on the progress of preparations are being held nationally and internationally. There will be no intersessional meetings or negotiations on the Draft Plan for Implementation before Johannesburg, but the disagreements are to be resolved in the meantime. Between the PrepComm IV (May/June) and the World Summit itself (August/September), informal consultations will be held to overcome the outstanding disagreements. ++ [ South Africa to Convene Friends of the Chair Meeting to Help Speed Agreement on Johannesburg Outcome; UN news release; July 11 ] ++ The general mood after several of such informal meetings, is one of (bad) compromise. Governments are trying to reach a deal on the text at the World Summit and seem less inclined to really resolve outstanding issues. There was no significant movement on substance in the negotiation texts yet, although the South African government has highlighted key areas of disagreement, including trade and globalisation, targets and timetables, and the Rio principles concerning precaution and common but differentiated responsibilities. Voluntary partnerships will be a major focal point of the World Summit, particular for the United States, while the developing countries feel that they are in an increasingly weak position. ++ [ Making Sustainable Development Work: Governance, Finance and Public-Private Cooperation; Powell's Speech at development conference, July 12 ] ++ After the last global preparatory meeting, PrepComm IV, three quarters of the text for negotiation, the Draft Plan for Implementation, were agreed upon, leaving the rest in brackets, indicating text portions that still need negotiation. Most of the brackets are in the sections on globalisation and means of implementation, finance and trade. Other outstanding issues are on time-bound targets, governance, human rights and labor standards, but also the future of the Global Environment Facility. While many governments regarded the PrepComm IV a success, although some noted a general lack of political will among key governments, especially from the developed countries (e.g. the US or the EU). It was agreed that the text should be sent in this state to Johannesburg rather than agreeing on a complete text without the time to negotiate it properly. ++ [ Gimme me Hope Joanna – What now, World Summit? Marc Berthold reports back from the PrepComm IV ] ++ ++ The Poltical Declaration, the high level outcome of the World Summit, could not be discussed at the last PrepComm IV. Instead, the UN WSSD Secreatariat has prepared a draft declaration that is currently being discussed within and between governments. ++ [ Proposed Elements for the Political Declaration of WSSD; draft political declaration -- pdf; 2 pages ] ++ Other International meetings - such as the G8 Ministerial meeting in Canada as well as the passing on of the Rio-Torch in Brazil at the end of June, and the ECOSOC sessions in July – will be used to bring the governments together in order to to look for consensus on open topics. Much of it will happen behind closed doors, and without access of NGOs. However, NGOs still have opportunities to lobby their governments on the Chapters of Globalisation, Means of Implementation, and the Institutional Framework in the Draft Plan for Implementation. ++ [ G8 summit in Kananaskis; July 2002 ] ++ End of June, several heads of states met in Rio de Janeiro, where the UNCED Earth Summit took place in 1992, to hand over the symbolic Earth Summit Torch from Brazil to South Africa. Civil Society was also present at this event and once more pressed the governments to ensure a successful World Summit with action-oriented commitments with clear targets and timeframes. ++ [ Torch handing over ceremony - from Rio to Johannesburg; speech by South African President Mbeki in Rio de Janeiro; June 25 ] ++ [ Joint NGO letter to heads of state convening in Rio de Janeiro; urging for concrete action and real commitments at the World Summit -- rtf; 5 pages ] ++ Heads of State to attend the Summit: While South Africa's President Mbeki is trying to convince the Heads of States all across the world to attend the Joahnnesburg Summit, his Foreign Minister is traveling especially to the European capitals. About 50 governments have already confirmed their presence in South Africa; among them Germany's Chancellor Schröder and Great Britain's Prime Minister Blair. Whether or not US President Bush will travel to Johannesburg is not yet clear. More and more NGOs doubt that George W. Bush will decide to go. ++ [ Call on Heads of States and Governments to give the WSSD a priority and attend the Summit; letter writing campaign by Earthday Network ] ++ In the meantime, African civil society is gathering for its second Pan African Civil Society Conference in order to prepare a structured and self-determined group of African Civil Society organisations capable of setting their own agenda / priorities for the World Summit. Main objectives are to consolidate the Civil Society's thematic input into the Summit itself based on the issues identified by the African NGOs, and to adopt a strategy for CSO's engagement and participation in the World Summit. ++ [ African Civil Society Groups Meet in Abidjan ]
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L A S T U P D A T E D 16-sep-02
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