Hopes fade for successor to Rio meeting in South Africa
John Vidal Monday June 10, 2002 The Guardian
Urgent attempts are to be made by the UN to try to resuscitate the world's largest ever meeting on poverty and the environment, following the collapse of preparatory talks in Bali at the weekend.
There are less than ten weeks to go until the start of the Johannesburg World Summit on sustainable development, which is expected to attract more than 100 world leaders and 60,000 delegates.
But the chances of agreement between rich and poor countries before the start of the meeting is unlikely, and governments are expected to be embarrassed by their perceived failure to address the most pressing poverty and environmental issues.
Yesterday, the blame for the collapse of the talks was put on rich countries, led by the US, who refused to compromise in several key areas including trade and finance.
"The US came with more than 200 delegates and tried to water down or rewrite agreements already made and to avoid all binding commitments," said Oxfam International. "The grouping of poor countries was hopelessly fragmented."
Friends of the Earth International accused the US of "hijacking" the meeting, with the help of Australia, Japan and Canada, and "trying to force through a free-trade agenda and doing all it could to prevent commitments."
Other groups, including Greenpeace, issued a joint statement calling the meeting "a disaster for the poor and the environment."
The August meeting in Johannesburg, a follow-up to the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, is intended to set a development path for the world over the next decade.
No new international treaties are expected to be signed, but it is considered vital to help reduce poverty, which in some parts of the world is on the increase.
Kofi Annan, the secretary general of the UN, has argued that the summit should address basic areas such as water, housing and energy. At present, 800 million people do not get enough to eat, 1.1 billion lack access to safe water, 2.4 billion have no basic sanitation, and a similar number have no electricity.
The US, by far the world's largest aid giver, continued its post-September 11 agenda in Bali by insisting that aid from rich countries should be conditional on "good governance".
Rich countries also refused to make any binding commitments for transnational companies to become more socially responsible, or to reform the world's trading system.
But the UN and developed countries refused to accept that the Bali talks had failed.
The environment secretary, Margaret Beckett, said: "There are many who will think that we could have done better, and that is a view that I completely share. The differences are real - but there is a tremendous will to close the gap.
"We are building a global partnership to manage the forces of globalisation so that its benefits are available to all. I am confident that what we have achieved takes us down the road to a successful summit in Johannesburg."
However, many observers now believe the best result possible from Johannesburg would be a new focus on Africa and a series of government initiatives, backed by industry, to introduce new technologies like solar power and computers to poor countries.