Civil society groups say they fear the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) will become a farce, the victim of cash-strapped national governments quietly shirking their social responsibilities and rich ones fiercely protecting their business interests.
The Summit, slated for August 26-September. 4 in Johannesburg, is a 10-year review of progress made on Agenda 21, the global action plan on environmentally sound development formulated at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) say the process of hammering out a plan to be adopted at Johannesburg is in total disarray and the unworkable text of the document may actually derail the Summit.
Likewise, climate negotiations at The Hague in November 2000 failed partly because the negotiating document was ”too long, too complicated and contained too many brackets,” says Daniel Mittler of the environmental group Friends of the Earth. Brackets are used to mark text on which governments have yet to reach agreement.
The problem this time, say NGOs, is that industrialised countries and those belonging to the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are happy dancing to the tune of profit devoid of social responsibility.
The groups single out Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and OPEC members Saudi Arabia and Venezuela for harsh criticism. Ironically, Venezuela leads the Group of 77 developing countries in the UN negotiations.
Their outcry centres on what they perceive as government inaction on corporate unaccountability, and the subservient role that sustainable development has been made to play to trade and business.
”The US and its allies blocked meaningful targets and timetables being inserted into the negotiating text for the Summit,” Friends of the Earth said in a recent statement.
The group says governments have virtually ignored massive public anger over corporate misbehaviour, most recently in the collapse of US oil giant Enron, and have chosen to treat the problem with voluntary initiatives instead of establishing and enforcing rights for the people affected by corporate abuse.
Another group, the Society for International Development, says core minimum standards of corporate accountability are needed to achieve the delicate balance of economic, social and environmental considerations that sustainable development requires.
But a call by NGOs, at a meeting this month, to give multilateral environmental agreements precedence over World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules was supported only by the Swiss government.
Other groups claim that the two-week meeting of the committee preparing for the Johannesburg talks produced little progress on such contentious issues as racism, environmental justice, indigenous peoples’ rights, women, human security, and militarism.
Given the direction of negotiations, NGOs hoped for little progress at the fourth and final preparatory meeting in Bali, Indonesia.
The preparatory meetings held in the run-up to world summits give various stakeholders, including NGOs, a chance to lobby to have their interests reflected in the text of the final agreement. The summits then become stages for political leaders to give their seal of approval to the painstakingly negotiated document.
Diplomats say their countries have made strides since the Earth Summit and are committed to making Johannesburg a success. But NGOs say governments are shirking the principles they agreed to in Rio by leaving private interests to implement the agreement.
The United Nations also has drawn stinging criticism from NGOs over its involvement of corporations in social programmes. ”The United Nations system must be transparently independent from interests of particular groups,” says Partricio Zambrano of the Latin American Student Organisation at Yale University.
”If the negotiations are in fact oriented towards the interests of transnational corporations, the legitimacy of the Johannesburg Summit and the UN are in question,” Zambrano adds. ”The transnationals have been responsible for harming the quality of life.”
That assertion remains subject to debate even among environmentalist groups, a number of which have sought to engage rather than isolate major corporations. However, concern is virtually universal over the extent to which corporations are allowed influence over environmental policy-making and the processes of turning policy into action.
Efforts are underway to ensure that the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) is organised in an environmentally friendly way and does not damage the limited natural resources of the host city, Johannesburg.
‘’There is increasing consensus around the need to reduce the environmental impact of big conventions, no matter where they are held,’’ says the UN Development Programme (UNDP) representative in South Africa, Nik Sekhran.
More than 60,000 people are expected in Johannesburg for the summit scheduled for Aug 16-Sep 4. The WSSD will be the first time an effort will be made to organise a major UN conference in a way that protects the environment and the resources of a host city.
The ‘’Greening the Summit’’ initiative will try to ensure that almost R400 million (34 million U.S. dollars) worth of goods and services will be used during the WSSD are produced — and disposed of — in a sustainable way.
The initiative will try to ensure that photocopies are double-sided, that organic food is available for delegates and that the disposable cups and plates they use are biodegradable.
Hotel, restaurants and conference venues that will be used during the summit are also being encouraged to operate in a sustainable way, by using efficient water, waste and energy management systems.
Discussions are also underway to see if ‘’green-house’’ gas emissions from the summit - including from international delegates travelling by air to South Africa - may be off-set by investments in energy saving technology in the country.
In a nutshell, delegates will be able to invest in sustainable energy technology for development programmes in South Africa. The emissions these projects save will be used to ‘’off-set’’ the gasses generated by the delegates at the summit.
During the WSSD, the initiative will run a ‘’Consumption Barometer’’ and everyday delegates will be given an update on how much food, water, paper, energy and other resources they used.
By showing how the summit — and the city — can operate in an environment-friendly way, the initiative hopes to leave a legacy of awareness of sustainable development in Johannesburg.
However, environmental activists are quick to point out that the aims of the initiative are ambitious and that it will probably not be possible to run the summit in a completely environment friendly way. But, they say they will be happy if the initiative provides a few good examples of how this can be done.
Environmental audits will be held — before, during and after the summit — to measure the impact of the WSSD on the environment and the impact of the ‘’greening’’ initiative’s efforts to reduce waste.
The lessons learnt by the initiative during its efforts to ‘’green’’ the WSSD will be written-up in a report - which can be used to help organize future international conferences in a sustainable way.
Funding for the initiative has been supplied by the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Environment (DACEL) of Gauteng Province, the Global Environmental Facility, and the United Nations Development Programme.
Technical assistance is being provided by these institutions, and by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) country Office.
In the meantime, a row has broken out between the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Valli Moosa.
(IPS)
Moosa has been attempting to ban the use of thin plastic bags in South Africa - describing them as the country’s unofficial ‘’national flower’’ because they litter the landscape.

But, COSATU, fearing job losses and that shops will pass the increased cost of the new packages onto consumers, has dug in its heels against the minister’s plans.

In a statement, COSATU says: ‘’The government’s new regulations on plastic bags fail to establish a proper balance between a clean environment and the need for job retention and job creation.

‘’We fear that this situation could have ramifications for South Africa’s ability to approach the WSSD in a unified fashion,’’ it warns.

Talks between the unions and the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism are underway.(IPS)