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| Sunday, 15 September 2002 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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World Summit for Sustainable Development: FAILED by Uchita de Zoysa The World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) that was held in Johannesburg from 26th August to 4th September ended as a historical failure. WSSD failed to achieve significant commitment to Sustainable Development goals as set in the agenda, it failed to obtain commitments from the developed nations, it failed to make specific financial commitment to the betterment of life on earth and failed to get support from heads of states, national governments and also civil society and other major groups. What is most sad is that WSSD failed the world.
The writer participated in the recently concluded World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg as a civil society representative invited by the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service. He was a Steering Committee Member of the International NGO Forum for the Earth Summit in Rio de Kaneiro in 1992 and presently is the Chairman of the Centre for Environment & Development based in Sri Lanka. A strong advocate of Sustainable Development and promoter for the creation of a Better World, Uchita shares his first hand experience of WSSD. In the aftermath of the summit, this postmortem is done to make sure that certain aspects of the failure be recorded for historical purposes and also to make sure that the future directions of the world are corrected as fast as we can. It is widely believed that WSSD was the end to a series of World Summits since Rio Earth Summit in 1992. While UN officials were heard saying that this is the last UN summit at least for a long time to come, activists screamed out "No More Shameful Summits." Does this mean that no one believes anymore that spending a stupendous US$100 million on a global negotiation process is worthwhile? Well, certainly not the way WSSD was conducted. The Expectations The failure to implement the agreements made at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 prompted the UN to call for WSSD 10 years later. The lack of commitment by industrial nations and the poor financial assistance by them to cleaning up the environment and providing better living conditions for the poor people in the developing countries forced the reconvening of world leaders once again. This time the issues were much serious and the challenges were greater than before. The widening gap between the rich and the poor nations, the growing over consumption in the North and rising levels of poverty in the South, and a deteriorating environment on earth made the UN Secretary General to identify five key areas to negotiate separately and holistically. The five key areas were; Water and Sanitation, Energy, Health, Agricultural Productivity and Biodiversity and Eco System Management. The comprehensive achievements meant serious strategic agreements to combat poverty, over-consumption and deal with unsustainable lifestyles. Some Notable Agreements The summit ended with a rush of compromising agreements. These agreements were apparently reached as face-saving compromises. They too were merely to improve on the official text than on actual commitments. Not only the political document that came out of Johannesburg, but the summit document too meant little to people around the world and also to many nations. While a majority of National Leaders opted not to participate, the actual number of participants was less than half of the projected 65,000 people. However, it is important to review some significant negotiations and outcomes of the process in the event of serious analysis. Kyoto Protocol: The most significant outcome of the summit was the isolation of the Government of the United States of America on the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change. The move by governments of Russia, UK and Canada along with other leading European nations openly declaring their commitment to the Kyoto Protocol and promises to ratify it in the near future left the US government looking red in their cheeks and openly exposed their attempts to sabotage the process to sustain a clean an healthy planet. Health: It was very heartening to see the summit agree that the WTO accord on patents should not prevent poor countries providing medicines to all. This decision will enable poor countries to provide medicinal solutions to their people that they could not do due to unaffordability imposed by patenting laws. Water: The Summit agreed to halve the proportion of people without safe drinking water and adequate sanitation. Once again the main opposition came from the United States, but with pressure from OPEC countries, Canada and Japan and even the big business lobby the negotiations ended in setting a target by 2015. The agreement will be significant if it can implement the decision with much more result oriented strategy to prevent more than 2 million deaths a year from diseases caused by water, specially children drinking polluted water. Agriculture & Fishing: The summit agreed to stop destructive fishing practices and establish marine protected areas and networks by 2012 and also to maintain or restore fish stocks to levels that can be sustainably harvested by not later than 2015. While this will mean that all countries will be responsible for reversing declines in fish stock or maintaining them at healthy levels, the wording is not strong enough to bind the nations to actually put into practice the agreement. Consumption of fish has risen 240% since 1960 and research shows that fish stocks worldwide are in crisis with more than 70% of commercially important stocks being over-exploited to the maximum sustainable levels of exploitation. Biodiversity: The summit agreed to significantly reduce biodiversity loss by 2010. This new non-binding proposal is aimed at curbing the destruction of habitats such as rainforests, wetlands and coral reefs that is driving fauna and flora species to extinction. While the agreement is notably important despite resistance from the US government and some G77 developing nations, environmentalists believe that it is a toothless statement that has weakened the necessity for stronger commitment by governments. Energy: The summit pathetically agreed only on voluntary regional and national targets for access to renewable energy like solar and wave energy. One of the most aspired negotiations of the summit fell well short of expectations when it bowed to pressure from the biggest oil consumer in the world - the USA and also to the world's largest oil producers. The summit failed not only to set any targets for increasing renewable energy but also failed to provide answers to the right to energy of the people in developing nations. Poverty: The greatest disappointment of the summit came when it merely agreed to halve the number of the world's poor living on less than US$1 per day by year 2015. The over-arching aim of the summit was to bridge the income gap between the world's richest and poorest, while ensuring the environment is not destroyed in the process. The agreement was nothing new for the summit to boast of as this was also an agreement reached at the Millennium Summit two years ago. Many activists and even governments felt that the summit swept under the carpet the most challenging task of humankind on earth under the guise of other issues of sustainability that favours more the developed nations and multinational corporations. Being Realistic This summit made quite clear that the United Nations has become a puppet of the United States. A few delegates were heard saying, "it is only a difference of a single letter: UN to US." However, the policy of the US government under Mr. George Bush is quite clear to the world. He even does not pretend his intentions and quite openly declares that the comforts of the US come first to any other concerns in the world. On the other hand, while the world wanders about the present role of the UN, what seems to be clear is that it has to stomach a lot of rubbish for mere survival as an organization rather than to genuinely perform diplomacy as a global entity. The United Nations Conference on Environment & Development or the real Earth Summit 10 years ago in Rio de Janeiro suddenly became much more significant in the comparison of WSSD. Not only UNCED came out with binding Conventions on Biological Diversity and Climate Change, it also produced a commendable Strategy for Sustainable Development called the Agenda 21 and also came up with a strong political document in the Rio Declaration. Comparatively, Johannesburg has nothing to offer the world. Not only WSSD came out with nothing, worse it compromised and weakened the negotiated positions reached at UNCED in Rio and beyond, While Mr. Maurice Strong the Secretary General for UNCED called the previous world summit the "last chance to save the earth", the WSSD Secretary General Mr. Nitin Desai lacked the imagination of making "making the Rio agreements happen". Finally it was up to the UN Secretary General Mr. Kofi Annan to say, "we have to be realistic about global negotiations." People at the summit questioned, "Why the hell do we have to spent 100 million US dollars to be reminded of being realistic." Great Pretenders The Civil Society once again came out as the champions of the cause for sustainable development and protection of the environment. This in all means is a true claim as the fight against new colonization of the Southern Countries by Trans National Corporations backed by Multi Lateral Trade Organizations and Industrial Countries has become more challenging. Yet, the role-played by NGOs at the summit too needs a close look and serious appraisal. While most of the civil society representatives were lost in the UN policy of apartheid between the governments and stakeholders, some big NGOs made use of the situation to emerge as Stage Heroes, Audience Champions and Television Stars. While UNCED ten years ago was a unifying event for NGOs and other civil society organizations and representatives, the WSSD was a battlefield for supremacy between the big NGOs and NGO Networks. Some used the strategy of rubbing shoulders with the UN and the establishment in gaining power within the process. Several others used the tactic of noise and demonstration to gain attention and stardom. Unfortunately, both these groups had not made adequate inroads to influencing the outcome during the most important four preparatory committee meetings held prior to the actual summit in Johannesburg. While the PrepComs were used as ground for power gaining battles for these NGOs, they completely made fools out of themselves pretending that they can really change the pre-determined UN agenda while in Johannesburg. Some of them were so close to the UN organizers, they could not believe when the establishment betrayed them by imposing restrictions of entrance to the official summit suddenly. The UN WSSD organizers only responded to angry outbursts of frustrated civil society activists who finally threatened forceful entry and also complete boycott. The Drama Historically it is important to make the world know of the actual drama that took place in Johannesburg Earth Summit or WSSD. While the official Summit was held in Sandon Center surrounded by the most exclusive and high consumerist Sandon Mall and other rich infrastructure in the heart of the non-African looking but more European looking city of Johannesburg, the Global People's Forum was organized some 30 km away at the NASREC Center in the most isolated environment. The idea was to keep the civil society and stakeholders away from the official negotiations. The surprise this time was the management of the Global People Forum was by a private company called JOSCO set-up by the South African Government that charged US$150 for each participant. While the official process was all free of charge, the poor Southern Civil Society representatives were virtually robbed of US$150 for the most disorganized Peoples Forum since the real peoples forum in Rio 10 years ago. While, the Rio People's Forum organized by the civil society brought together people from all-over the world into drafting alternative treaties, the pecuniary minded Johannesburg People's Forum divided the civil society into small group events as much as possible. When civil society and other stakeholder groups started crowding the official Sandon Centre, the UN organizers blocked entrance from the second day by issuing only 1000 priority passes for an assumed participation of 60,000 people. To obtain these passes people had to queue for hours like queuing for rations in famine hit Somalia. The apartheid tactics were changed everyday by the UN organizers and finally, most civil society representatives gave up the process and spent more time on the roads of Johannesburg. Well perhaps the UN organizers would have felt that their tactics of diversions through frustration had worked, but the future will show that the UN had lost whatever credibility it had with the representatives of the people coming from civil society, indigenous people, trade unions, scientific community and even the business and government sectors - as they locked them all out of the process to accommodate their Northern biased and Multi National Corporation supported negotiations. Sri Lanka at WSSD The local reader should also be aware that Sri Lankan government was merely a spectator in the whole of WSSD process. While the world summit was meant as a world leaders summit Sri Lanka along with many other South Asian Nations had decided not to participate at the National Leadership level. The Sri Lanka delegation led by the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources was a sad pick of weak international negotiators representing secretaries and officials of ministries of environment, water, housing & foreign affairs. While the government once again stuck to the policy of not including stakeholders in the delegation, it also did not consider the inclusion of seasoned international negotiators and policy makers of the country. The simple and uncomplicated policy was that "there is nothing we can do as a small and poor country but just participate and learn." The question is when do we put to practice what we learn and also be aware and proud of the fact that we were a nation with enormous wealth of knowledge, tradition, resources and technology that once made us one of the greatest nations on earth despite its size. Are we lost on earth? North or south, rich or poor we are heading towards disaster. Does that mean that humans will destroy themselves on earth? Well, Southern governments have lost its bargaining power. The UN has lost is charismatic negotiation skills and is basically losing its mandate as the common representative for governments. People have lost faith in government. WSSD has confirmed that we cannot bet our destinies on Global Summits and international negotiations. As many people gathered in Johannesburg expressed in different rooms, restaurants, pubs and corridors at the end of the summit, "people of the world from South to North and East to West need to collectively strengthen their claim for a Better World." |
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