A rchive Date
[ 31-08-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.N ]
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[http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldsummit2002/story/0,12264,783901,00.html
Ministers race against clock to find common plan of action
EU under pressure to dilute cherished aims to accommodate White House interests
Paul Brown, environment correspondent in Johannesburg
Saturday August 31, 2002
The Guardian
Ministers met late into the night to try to resolve key differences on the international plan for sustainable development, with critics poised to write off the whole earth summit as a failure.
The EU was under pressure from some governments, especially the US and Australia, to abandon its cherished aims of bringing sanitation and electricity to two billion of the world's poorest people, so as to accommodate the White House which objects to timetables and targets.
Environment and development groups complained that some statements in the summit's plan of action were already weaker than the original Rio declaration 10 years ago, and wondered whether it would be better for the EU to walk away than to see the summit's aims further diluted.
Margaret Beckett, Britain's environment secretary and head of its delegation, said that this was not an option. "Of course we must ultimately have an agreement, but we cannot settle for an agreement at any price. My view is that we have to get on with it, and we stand ready to work day and night to resolve issues."
To help speed up the process of agreement, civil servants were withdrawn, leaving ministers face to face. But it failed to help matters and the civil servants were recalled.
One disputed target is the pledge to halt the loss of bio diversity, caused mainly by the destruction of rainforests. The G77 group of developing countries rejects the target because it affects their rights to exploit natural resources.
There was also concern at the proposed 10-year plan to make industrial production and consumption patterns sustainable, because some fear it would hinder development.
The EU was on weak ground, however, on agricultural subsidies. The developing world wants subsidies to farmers in both the US and EU abolished so that they can benefit from a free market. Doing so would stop the imports of cheap food which has been overproduced in rich countries and dumped on the developing world.
Despite this, the EU is seen by most sectors, including that of business, as the champion of action. Businesses want an action plan so that many emerging technologies, such as the solar energy panels being developed by companies like BP and Shell, can be used to bring electricity to the millions of poor in Africa.
Another key difference is that America wants to avoid any mention of climate change, still less of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, because President Bush has rejected it.
The Russian deputy trade minister, Mukhamed Tsikanow, added to the gloom by suggesting that Moscow may not ratify the Kyoto pact because of the lack of "economic interest" after the US rejection. Observers interpreted his remarks as a bid to extract more EU money, saying that Russia's President Vladimir Putin had pledged to sign the protocol, and it was unlikely that a deputy minister would be allowed to casually overturn that pledge.
Dr Paul Jefferiss, policy director of the wildlife charity RSPB who was a member of the UK delegation to the summit's preparatory meeting in Bali, said: "There is great pressure on the EU to capitulate and agree a weak text. It would be a disaster for the poor and for the planet if that happened. It would also be a huge embarrassment for the EU after it pressed so hard for meaningful targets and timetables."
Dinah Nichols, the chief civil servant negotiator for the UK, said that the EU did not intend to give ground: "This summit must make a difference, otherwise what is the point of it."
But if a deal is to be reached time is running out. The heads of state, including Tony Blair, arrive on Monday to make speeches and finalise an as yet unpublished political declaration which is meant to complement the plan of action.
If there is no agreed plan, or it is so weak that it is being denounced by hundreds of environment and development groups, it will be a seen as an embarrassment. Mr Bush, who in his absence has been blamed for the impasse, is sending his secretary of state, Colin Powell. It may be that having worn down the EU's ambitions as far as possible, Mr Powell will make last-minute concessions on key issues to save the summit.
 World Fact Book (CIA]
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