28 august 2002
johannesburg
EARTH SUMMIT: PROGRESS OF
NEGOTIATIONS
The Earth Summit covers a vast range of
environment and development issues. The
following is a summary of progress on some
key points, and information about the
negotiating position of key countries and
blocs. Friends of the Earth International
(FoEI) experts are available for advice and
comment on the Summit talks.
ENERGY
The US opposes any target for renewable
energy. Brazil has proposed a target of new
renewable energy amounting to 10% of primary
energy supply by 2010. More countries are
thinking about adopting this target and FoEI
calls on them to do so. The EU has failed to
support this real progress on renewable
energy expansion, supporting instead a very
weak target that could encourage the
construction of socially and ecologically
damaging large dams in developing countries.
The Kyoto Protocol must be mentioned in the
Plan of Action from the Summit, and a
commitment to entry into force by the end of
2002 included. Japanese NGOs have written to
Environment Minister Hiroshi Oki demanding
that Japan supports the inclusion in the text
of a commitment to the entry into force of
the Protocol.
TRADE AND GLOBALISATION
There is still no text that will ensure that
multilateral environmental agreements are not
made subservient to WTO trade rules. More
than 200 NGOs support a call initiated by
FoEI that the autonomy and authority of the
international agreements that protect people
and the environment has to be affirmed loud
and clear at Johannesburg. The EU in
particular must show leadership on this
issue, after EU Commissioner Pascal Lamy
welcomed the NGO statement in the past.
Eco-labelling (which has clear implications
for GM food) is controversial, with the
current text making such schemes voluntary
and demanding strict WTO compliance. Given
the continuing dispute of the European Union
with the United States over GMO labeling,
nothing less than the right for countries to
put the interests of their consumers above
those of the global trade system is at stake
here.
Language related to the precautionary
principle, a key principle agreed at Rio, is
in danger of being weakened, and the current
draft implies subordination to WTO rules. The
EU is failing to defend it properly in the
trade chapter. Australia and Canada,
supported by the US are making it a priority
to ensure WTO compatibility of the entire
Earth Summit text.
CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY
This is one of the key issues at this Summit.
Yesterday morning the G77 reintroduced the
call for an inter-governmental framework on
this issue, which FoEI warmly welcomes.
Norway during the negotiations last night
amended the G77 proposal. However, the G77
have difficulties accepting some references
to existing international agreements. The EU
has been one of the main stumbling blocks in
achieving progress on this issue. It remains
committed solely to voluntary approaches,
which the UN Environment Programme recently
criticized as insufficient. FoEI believes
that agreement on a negotiation process for
global rules for business is a critical test
of the success or failure of the Earth
Summit.
FORESTRY and BIODIVERSITY
The UN Forum on Forests and its predecessors
agreed 350 action points
– but while some support action on
deforestation others effectively romote
timber trade. The UN Convention on
Biodiversity is a much stronger instrument,
but has not been ratified by the US. At the
Hague ministerial meeting on the Convention
this April, around 100 ministers signed an
agreement committing states to introduce
measures by 2010 to reverse loss of
biodiversity. EU ministers have attempted to
include this commitment in the Earth Summit
text but it currently remains in brackets
(i.e. not agreed). Rumour has it that this is
a target that could be agreed here. This is a
test case for whether the Johannesburg Plan
of Action deserves its name.
The agreed text recognizes that small
community initiatives to protect forests are
the most effective. It also states that the
UN Forum on Forests and Biodiversity
Convention must be made consistent. Both
these points are welcomed by FoEI, and should
lead to more biologically diverse forests.
However, the agreed text also promotes
plantation forestry, which damages
biodiversity and is therefore inconsistent
with the remainder of the text.
GMOs
The 192 Type 2 public-private partnerships
include one which is clearly designed to
promote GMOs as part of “sustainable
agriculture”. Croplife, a plant-based science
industry organization based in Brussels which
includes Monsanto, Sygenta and others, will
run an e-mail learning system for agriculture
professionals, who will pass on the results
to small farmers around the world. Other
players in the partnership include APRDC,
based in Bangkok.
US AT IT AGAIN
The US – often supported by Japan, Canada,
Australia and New Zealand (the JUSCAN group)
– continues to be the single biggest block on
rogress at the Earth Summit. The US:
1. Opposes any clear targets on sanitation.
The existing UN goal is to cut the number of
people who lack access to adequate sanitation
by 2015, currently estimated at 2
billion.
2. Opposes any targets for increasing
foreign aid as a proportion of developed
countries’ GNP. The current US level of aid
is 0.2%, and the EU average is 0.34%, with a
commitment from the Monterey UN Financing for
Development conference to increase this to
0.39%. The existing UN target agreed already
thirty years ago at the first Earth Summit in
1972 is 0.7%. The final text may simply
“commend” Governments who increase their aid
and “encourage” progress towards this
target.
3. Opposes any language that implies binding
agreements on corporate accountability or
establishes any process under which such
agreements could be reached.
4. Has dropped any commitment to strong
environmental or social standards for Export
Credit Agencies (as a negotiating concession
to some G77 Governments who are concerned
that these standards might be used to block
access to developed country markets). This
concession
reverses previous US commitments in this
area 5. Continues to oppose any reference to
the Kyoto Protocol, and in particular to
support for the entry in to force of the
Protocol by the end of 2002.
ECOLOGICAL DEBT
The issue of ecological debt, that is the
debt accrued by industrialized northern
countries to Southern countries from the
exploitation of their environment, resources
and people, has been completely ignored in
the negotiations. FoEI believes it is time
for the North to recognize and pay the debt
to the South.
OTHERS
A Political Declaration addressing all the
issues above is available from FoEI and could
be used as a model by negotiators. Rumour has
it that UK Environment Minister Michael
Meacher was today prevented from speaking to
the press (including the BBC) by Alistair
Campbell, Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Press
Secretary. Blair previously tried to stop
Meacher, easily the greenest UK Minister,
from attending the Summit at all. So much for
Blair’s promise to “put the environment at
the heart of Government”.
contact:
In Jo'burg
Daniel Mittler (FoEI Summit Co-ordinator)
+27 (0) 72 401 5394
Ricardo Navarro (FoEI Chair) +27 (0) 72
4015392
Ian Willmore (media) +27 (0) 72 4015386
In London
Mike Childs 020 7566 1649
Matt Phillips 020 7566 1660
Press office 020 7566 1649
|
