RIO+10 AND THE NORTH-SOUTH DIVIDE

World Summit Paper #8; by Wolfgang Sachs; November 2001

In less than a year’s time, world leaders will gather in Johannesburg, South Africa, to review the progress that has been made in implementing the commitments established at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. The World Summit on Sustainable Development – at first still called Rio+10 – will un-doubtedly represent a forum at which our planet’s North-South conflict will be force-fully apparent.

In his essay, Wolfgang Sachs takes a closer and perhaps unusual look at the North-South divide and the relationship between equity and sustainability. He portrays the North-South conflict and the corresponding challenge of equity as one that is played out on at least two levels: (1) the level of rich vs. poor nations, represented by their gov-ernments, and (2) the level of the global consumer class (present in varying proportions in all countries) vs. the social majority that exists outside global circuits.

Sachs then applies these two levels of analysis to three major arenas of negotiation that have dominated policymaking debates during the ten years following Rio: climate, biodiversity, and trade. In each case, he argues that the pursuit of equity among nations on the basis of the old development paradigm may conflict with the achievement of justice for the earth’s marginalised majority.

His conclusion is severe: “Whatever the arena – climate, biodiversity, or trade – if the North fails to negotiate environmental agreements which are seen as fair arrangements by the South, sustainability cannot be achieved. There will be no Ecology without Equity. On the other hand, however, if the South continues to demand ever greater shares in the robber economy, sustainability cannot be achieved either. The principle of Equity conflicts with the principle of Ecology unless Equity is sought within a framework of environmentally unobtrusive development. There can also be no Equity without Ecology.”

Succinctly and poignantly, Sachs’ analysis cuts through the established North-South discourse. The essay presents challenges to both sides of the divide. We publish it as a contribution to the debate over the principles for achieving a fair “global deal” in Johannesburg.

[ pdf; 16 pages ]