Final Update from the WSSD
WWF
POLITICAL OVERVIEW:
General overview:
WWF believes that this meeting has failed dramatically to take the action needed
to reduce the patterns of unsustainable production and consumption that are
impoverishing our planet and the people that live on it. Although the Summit did
have a few positive outcomes, overall it did not produce the types of
commitments that WWF and others believe are necessary to achieve sustainable
development. Over the last few days of the Summit, world leaders emphasized the
importance of sustainable development in their speeches, making promises of
unilateral action and funding. However, this only served to highlight the
failure of the Action Plan to provide a clear road map for how to achieve
sustainable development. After the plan of implementation was adopted several
countries expressed reservations about it. For instance, the US said that the
agreement did not commit governments to implementation on all aspects, including
on biodiversity conservation. At the same time, more optimistically, the EU said
they would convene a group of like-minded countries to work together on
progressive targets on renewable energy. How this would work is not yet clear.
Given the broadly negative outcomes of the official process we are taking
whatever opportunities present themselves to stress that organisations such as
WWF will continue the battle to conserve biodiversity and promote sustainable
development. We will also use whatever opportunities present themselves at the
national level to follow up with recommendations to governments.
Heads of State speeches:
Over Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, over 100 Heads of State each made a
five-minute address to the Summit. In their speeches, many of them announced
initiatives or funding for sustainable development. WWF believes that in the
majority of cases, their words do not match with the actions taken by their
negotiators over the previous week. We are looking to those Heads of State who
made grand promises to turn their words into actions over the coming months.
One issue that did stand out were the announcements by Canada and Russia that
they intend to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Once Russia ratifies, the Protocol can
enter into force. Canada's announcement is important as it signifies a split in
the North American block.
Political Declaration:
At the time of writing (19.30 local time), the political declaration is
embroiled in controversy. There is speculation that agreement on a declaration
will prove impossible and that a watered down Chairman's text will be
substituted. This is another sad reminder of the lack of political agreement
here.
Plan of Implementation (note this is an updated version of the updates
on the Plan that you have received previously):
WWF believes that the Plan of Implementation will not provide significant
movement forwards from commitments made in Rio and since. In some cases the text
actually constitutes a step backward (precautionary principle). WWF believes
that the inability of governments to forge an innovative path forward is partly
the result of an overloaded agenda, a distinct lack of focus on critical
overarching global challenges, and the pressures created by the current
international financial difficulties. The meagre outcome of the meeting is also
a consequence of some countries' conscious efforts to prevent the Summit from
agreeing new targets and timetables. The US has been the most negative country
in this regard, in many cases helped by countries like Australia and Canada.
On the issues of energy and climate change, the United States, Saudi Arabia,
Japan, Canada and Australia managed to protect their fossil fuel interests at
the expense of the 2 billion people on the planet with no access to energy
services. On water issues the main difficulties have concerned cross boundary
issues where countries including Turkey and Australia have blocked progress.
Countries like Norway and Switzerland have been actively promoting targets
and timetables on a number of issues, often backed by the EU. At the same time,
however, the EU has failed to deliver the necessary concessions on trade and
subsidies to developing countries. The EU has allowed the immediate
uncertainties related to the German election and the short-term interests of
French farmers' rule over the needs of long-term sustainable development for the
benefit of the World's poor and the environment.
The developing countries in G77 have failed to produce a forward-looking
agenda for sustainable development, but have instead focused only on their
immediate interests in increased financial assistance and trade concessions.
In the final hours of the negotiations on trade and globalization, a number
of countries, including Hungary, Switzerland, Norway, Tuvalu, St. Lucia,
Barbados, and Ethiopia managed to eliminate the very worst elements from the
text.
Generally, for each of the issues covered by the Summit, its results reflect
a few countries' narrow interests, rather than the interests of the large
majority of countries who would like to see action - not to speak of the civil
society, which has engaged very constructively in the process.
Specific Issues:
Renewable energy: WWF believes that the energy section of the Plan of
Implementation delivers nothing to provide energy services for the 2 billion
people worldwide who have no access to modern energy services nor anything to
curb global warming. It has no targets or timetables of any kind to increase the
share of renewable energy, and delivers nothing on reducing the massive
subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, which continue to prop up its dominance
of the global energy mix. Finally, it merely reiterates agreements made over the
past several years.
Precautionary Principle:
The Precautionary Principle was agreed in Rio as Principle 15 of the Rio
Declaration and was developed at subsequent meetings such as the Biosafety
Protocol and the POPs treaty. The agreed wording refers to 'science-based
decision-making' and talks about the precautionary approach rather than the
principle. On the other hand the text quotes the entire Principle 15 from Rio
and therefore cannot be said to be a serious backsliding. In a number of other
areas in the text, reference to the precautionary principle has been deleted,
despite the existing references to this principle in numerous international
agreements.
Water and Sanitation: WWF welcomes the sanitation target that aims to halve
the proportion of people living without access to sanitation by 2015. This is an
essential complement to the Millennium Summit's target to halve the number of
people without access to clean water by 2015. However, the target has no mention
of river basin management nor sustainable development, which are needed to
secure the water resource and make sure that the provision of water to people
and nature there will not be through large scale diversion and containment of
natural systems.
Trade and globalization:
WWF believes that this section of text falls far short of what is needed, and
merely re-states the status quo. The summit's action plan on trade and
globalization is pitiful. It fails to realize that the WTO driven agenda for
globalization doesn't necessarily work in favour of the poor and the natural
environment. It fails to restate the Precautionary Principle - a crucial tenet
of the Rio Declaration, and it fails to ensure that international environmental
treaties such as the Kyoto Protocol are protected by WTO rules on free trade.
There are no references to Sustainability Impact Assessments. It is remarkable
that at a Summit on sustainable development, governments have failed even to
meaningfully address the issue of environmentally harmful subsidies - payments
that support environmentally destructive practices.
Sustainable production and consumption: An agreement was reached to establish
a framework of programmes to support national and regional initiatives for
sustainable production and consumption. This falls short of the proposal to have
a global ten-year programme of action, but is nevertheless a point of departure
for future action in this area.
Biodiversity, para 42: The Summit
has confirmed the decisions made at the last Conference of the Parties to the
Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) on the target to significantly reduce the loss
of biodiversity by 2010. The Summit also encouraged action by the Convention on
Access and Benefit Sharing which is a provision that could help poor people in
biodiverse rich areas in the longer term. While the language on targets is
weaker than that from a Ministerial Declaration issued in The Hague earlier this
year, we recognise that they have opened a window for new and additional funding
and technical support in the future. WWF is also pleased to see the US has
agreed the target. Now they should join the CBD and implement it with the rest
of the world.
Toxic Chemicals: On chemical
management, negotiators have agreed to compromise language on all of the
outstanding issues, with the exception of text on the precautionary approach. As
a result of the compromises made, the agreement reached in Johannesburg is
weaker than existing commitments made in other international fora including the
POPs Treaty and the UNEP Global Ministerial Environment Forum in Cartagena,
Colombia in February 2002.
Marine Environment: The text
agreed on marine issues includes a target for replenishment of depleted fish
stocks by 2015 and on elimination of harmful subsidies. While the text is short
on action plans with new measures, and refers to the outdated concept of Maximum
Sustainable Yield, it reinforces WWF's call for a reform of subsidies and the
EU's Common Fisheries Policy, and thus offers the European Union the opportunity
to be the first region to meet the target.
Kyoto Protocol language:
Negotiators have included language stating that countries that have ratified the
Kyoto Protocol urge all other countries that have not yet ratified to do so as
rapidly as possible. This is a positive signal, but does not add anything to
what is already agreed in meetings under the Climate Change Convention.
Natural resources: There is no
reference to targets, the precautionary principle and the ecosystem in the text.
This has the effect of rendering the text largely irrelevant.
EVENTS
On the positive front on Tuesday, at a ceremony in Johannesburg, the GEF
(Global Environment Facility), the World Bank, and WWF joined the Brazilian
government in supporting a new program - ARPA - that will triple the amount of
the Amazon rainforest under federal protection. This announcement ensures the
conservation of an area twice as big as the United Kingdom or almost twice the
size of the State of Texas, amounting to 12% of the total forest area. On
Tuesday, WWF Netherlands launched its new IMAX movie SOS Planet. After this
world premiere at WSSD, the movie will run in IMAX theatres around the world in
a few months time.
On Wednesday, WWF took part in the launch of the Congo Basin Initiative, a
follow-up to the Yaounde Summit, which will provide significant resources for
forest protection and management in the Congo Basin.
COMMUNICATIONS
On Tuesday, WWF's International President gave a one-hour briefing to a
number of journalists. Journalists who were present included Radio France
International, BBC Africa Service, Reuters, and several South African
newspapers.
Also on Tuesday, Melanie Steiner spoke at the final ECO Coalition press
briefing at the Nedcor building. Over 70 journalists were present, including a
number of news and TV agencies.
On Wednesday lunchtime, WWF held a photo opportunity outside the convention
centre. A number of WWF staff held up mirrors, in front of a banner that read
'Can you look yourself in the mirror tomorrow? What have you done for the
planet?" A large number of journalists were present, including AP TV and
South African TV, and agency photographers. Following this, Jennifer Morgan
spoke at the UN sponsored NGO press briefing in front of a large number of
journalists. She spoke generally about WWF's opinion of the meeting, but also
focused on the question of energy. On Wednesday, WWF International issued an
OpEd piece by Claude Martin. The piece focuses on the future of multilateral
agreements in light of the disappointing outcome of the Summit.
MEETINGS
On Tuesday evening, Claude Martin was invited to address Heads of State.
Claude was the only representative of an environmental NGO to be given this
opportunity. Both the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, and South African
President Thabo Mbeki voiced support for Claude's analysis and for the ideas
that he presented on how to move forwards. On Wednesday, in a meeting with Kim
Carstensen, Kofi Annan reiterated his support for WWF's ideas. Claude's speech
was sent to you earlier today. Also on Tuesday, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, WWF's
International President met with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. During the
meeting, the Secretary General was presented with a globe displaying email
messages from around the world received through the SOS Planet web site.
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