|
May 31st Bali, Indonesia
wwf, greenpeace, friends of the earth
international
EARTH SUMMIT SHIP IS SINKING: NGOs WARN
KOFI ANNAN
The Earth Summit is in danger of collapse.
This assessment by major environment groups
emerged at the end of the first week of the
final preparatory meeting in Bali for the
Johannesburg Earth Summit, due to begin late
August.
WWF, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace,
sent a salvo to the UN Secretary General Kofi
Anan in a bid to rescue the stagnant Bali
meeting which is set with the task of
deciding the format for an agreement at the
Summit on key global issues including water,
energy, health, agriculture, biodiversity and
corporate globalization.
"Unless Kofi Annan intervenes to raise the
political stakes before Ministers arrive on
Monday, the Earth Summit will end up as 'Rio
minus 10', not Rio plus 10," said Remi
Parmentier, Political Director of Greenpeace
International.
"The EU and G77 countries must come
together to ensure this conference has a
benefit for people and the planet. Otherwise
they will be caving in to the Bush
administration whose key objective seems to
be a Summit that produces no real
consequences," said Kim Carstensen, CEO of
WWF Denmark and Head of WWF's delegation in
Bali.
"People all over the world are protesting
against corporate globalization - but
governments continue to sacrifice the Earth
Summit on the altar of Exxon, Monsanto and
co," said Daniel Mittler Earth Summit
Coordinator for Friends of the Earth.
In the letter to
Kofi Annan
, the groups warned that:
No-one amongst governments seems to have
taken any notice of your request that at the
Earth Summit "We must rehabilitate our one
and only planet".
Governments continue to put corporate
globalisation before the interests of people
and the planet. Your vision that "together,
we can and must write a new and hopeful
chapter in natural - and human - history" is
being flatly ignored. Governments have failed
to respond to the global call to establish
social and environmental limits to economic
globalisation.
Nittin Desai, the Summit Secretary General
said that WSSD "is expected to provide the
impetus for specific action that will
comprise a major departure from business as
usual" and that "We have to think big and go
to scale".
And Dr Emil Salim, the Chairman of the
Summit´s Preparatory Committee said that "If
we continue as we have done in the past, we
will sink".
Mr Annan, the Earth Summit is sinking.
The central problem is a lack of concrete
actions, targets and timetables and the
absence of means of implementation and
financial resources.
Contact
Susan Cavanagh press officer Bali Tel +62
(0)817 971 0052 or +316 212 969 10
Remi Parmentier Bali Tel +62 (0)817 971
0054, Kim Carstensen Bali Tel +62 (0)817
9707827
Daniel Mittler Tel +49 173 9234747
|
