The upcoming World Conference on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, is doomed to failure if rich and poor countries do not begin to demonstrate the political will to come up with solutions for the world’s environmental problems, warn activists and experts on the environment.
The August 26-September 4 summit, better known as Rio+10, risks failing due to a lack of political will among industrialised and developing nations alike, Wolfgang Sachs, a prominent expert with Germany’s Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, told IPS.
The United States’ lukewarm interest in environmental issues stand in the way of the meeting’s success, as will the influence of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which links developing oil producing nations, said Sachs.
Rio+10 was convened by the United Nations to assess compliance with the targets agreed at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
Sachs was critical of the lack of progress made towards meeting the environment and development goals set 10 years ago in Brazil.
The expert underlined that the conservation of natural resources is essential to guaranteeing the livelihoods and health of the world’s poor, and questioned whether the world had any real interest in the issues of the environment and sustainable development.
The challenge of the Rio+10 conference is how to go beyond the goals set by Agenda 21, which was adopted at the Earth Summit. But Sachs said the real danger was that the scant progress made could actually be rolled back.
The Earth Summit established environmental protection guidelines for governments and business, laid the foundations for global stewardship of the environment, and boosted the legitimacy the small-scale initiatives of civil society, small companies and municipal governments, noted Sachs.
However, the countries of the industrialised North expressed reservations about the agreements, the nations of the developing South showed little interest in environmental questions, while the planet’s health has continued to deteriorate and inequalities have deepened, he complained.
The developing countries, led by South Africa, the international conference’s host, mistakenly believe that the summit will only focus on development and not the environment, said Sachs. But ‘’that would be a step backwards’’ with respect to the Earth Summit, he warned.
The eradication of poverty is not possible without respect for the environment, Sachs argued. ‘’An environmental strategy is indispensable for going beyond the hegemonic shadow of the North and leaving behind obsolete development models,’’ he said.
The Rio+10 conference will draw together heads of state and government, environment ministers, and representatives of United Nations agencies, non-governmental organisations and multilateral financial institutions.
The meeting should take into account the rights of the poor over their living spaces and surroundings and the need to reduce the pressure and demands of the rich on resources, said Sachs.
Poverty is more a lack of power than a lack of money, and empowering the poor and ensuring respect for their rights are indispensable conditions for eliminating poverty, he maintained.
The environmental watchdog Greenpeace International has drawn up a list of requirements that it says would ensure the success of the Johannesburg summit, such as the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the head of the organisation’s Italian branch, Gabriele Salari, told IPS.
The conference should sign a commitment to the public financing of renewable energy sources that would bring clean, low-cost energy to the two billion people in the world who live without electricity, according to Greenpeace.
Industrialised countries should also commit themselves to immediately begin earmarking at least 20 percent of the funds dedicated to the energy sector to developing renewable sources of electricity and promoting their use in developing countries through their own credit agencies, Salari added.
In addition, funds should be allotted to the conservation and sustainable use of forests, and industry should be held fully responsible for the damages to human health and the environment caused by the production and use of dangerous chemicals, says Greenpeace.
The environmental watchdog is also calling for a disarmament , especially regarding nuclear weapons, and cuts in defence spending in order to free up financial resources for sustainable development.
If such agreements are not achieved, Rio+10 will be destined to be a flop, said Salari.
Martin Khor, the director of the Malaysia-based Third World Network, said that as long as George W. Bush is president of the United States, there can be no hope for success at multilateral conferences like the Johannesburg summit.
Bush has repeatedly stated and demonstrated in concrete actions that he puts a priority on bilateral, rather than multilateral, relations, Khor pointed out.
The way the preparations for the summit are shaping up, ‘’we can’t expect anything positive to come out of South Africa,’’ the activist lamented.
(IPS)