27th May 2002, Bali, Indonesia
Act now to save Earth Summit!
Friends of the Earth International (FoEI)
accuses governments of wrecking the Earth
Summit in Johannesburg (1). At the start of
the last round of negotiations before the
Summit in August, FoEI calls on governments
to finally commit to a meaningful action
plan.
The negotiations in Bali, Indonesia are
based on a new negotiation draft issued by
Conference Chairman Emil Salim on May 9th .
The text contains little of value. Most of
the targets and timetables from earlier
drafts have been removed.
Friends of the Earth International accuses
governments of failing to set social and
ecological limits to economic globalisation.
Instead of using the Earth Summit to respond
to the global concern over deregulation and
liberalisation, governments seem hell-bent on
rebranding the WTO´s free trade agenda as
sustainable development. Corporations are
being given a free hand by governments. The
very few targets that remain in the text, are
mostly to by achieved by corporations through
voluntary initiatives. This, says Friends of
the Earth International, is a shameful
abdication of responsibility by governments
and ignores that big business is one of the
key players undermining sustainable
development today.
Friends of the Earth International has
made constructive proposals throughout the
preparatory process for the Summit but has
seen little willingness by governments to
respond to civil society concerns. The USA,
Australia, Canada and OPEC countries have
continuously fought against any new
commitments to emerge from the Earth Summit.
Sadly, other players such as the EU have been
unwilling and unable to stand up to these
wreckers.
Friends of the Earth International sets
out two challenges for governments to show
that they are willing to change direction.
Governments must agree to launch negotiations
for binding global rules on corporate
accountability at the Summit (2) and must
establish that Multilateral Environmental
Agreements (MEAs) are never to be subservient
to WTO rules (3).
Daniel Mittler, Campaign Coordinator for
FoEI, comments:
"Bali is the last chance to save the Earth
Summit. Governments have broken the promises
they made at Rio in 1992. It is thus urgent,
that governments agree a clear action plan
with money attached for Johannesbur."
Friends of the Earth International is
launching its global campaign for the Earth
Summit in Bali under the slogan "Don´t let
big business rule the world". FoEI will be
collecting demands for world leaders all over
the world and deliver them to Johannesburg as
part of a major art installation (4).
Daniel Mittler comments:
" We will bring thousands of messages from
all over the world to the Summit to show
governments that citizens demand social and
environmental limits to globalisation. If
governments fail to respond to this call,
they will face a groundswell of anger in
Johannesburg."
Friends of the Earth International´s
comments on the negotiation text are
available at
www.rio-plus-10.org
as well as from
Contact: Daniel Mittler, Earth Summit
Campaign Coordinator, +49 173 923 4747
Notes
(1) Official information on the summit is at
www.johannesburgsummit.org
(2) FoEi has launched a global campaign for
binding corporate accountability rules:
www.rio-plus-10.org/en/positions/26.php
(3) A full statement on MEAs signed by more
than 150 organisations globally is at:
www.rio-plus-10.org/en/positions/35.php
(4) FoEI is collecting messages for the
Earth Summit, including on the Internet at
www.rio-plus-10.org/en/action.php?a=a1&lang=en
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