WRI Expresses Disappointment Over Many WSSD Outcomes

9/4/2002

From: Adlai Amor of the World Resources Institute, in Johannesburg from August 23 to September 5, mobile: 27-82-858-5140, e-mail: aamor@wri.org, Web: http://newsroom.wri.org

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 -- Despite some advances made by negotiators at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), which ends today, the World Resources Institute (WRI) expressed disappointment in the overall outcomes incorporated in the WSSD Plan of Action.

"Over-all we must ask, will the poor be better off ten years from now? Will our world be safer or more secure from global environmental threats ten years from now?" said Jonathan Lash, WRI president. "Unfortunately, there are too many gaps and too few teeth in the WSSD Plan of Action."

The WRI delegation was particularly disappointed over the governments' failure to set targets for increases in renewable energy like solar or wind. The United States and other oil producing countries have resisted setting targets for renewable energy, while European countries and some developing countries like Brazil and the Philippines lobbied hard for such targets.

While the Plan of Action contains language on actions to help solve climate change, it is silent on the need for all countries to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. This treaty is needed to implement the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change which was adopted by the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The United States has lobbied hard against it.

"Energy and climate change are inextricably linked. Energy generated by fossil fuels is driving global climate change," said Jonathan Lash. "We have missed an opportunity to increase energy production from non-polluting sources like solar, biomass, and wind, and to provide the many companies taking action to reduce emissions with a secure framework for their actions."

The head of WRI's WSSD delegation, Dr. Tony La Vina, also criticized the lack of commitment to provide more financial resources to implement this plan. He also criticized the governments' failure to guide the World Trade Organization in implementing the Doha Agreement and to look at globalization from a sustainable development perspective.

While expressing disappointment over these issues, WRI welcomed many of the targets adopted by the WSSD, especially on water, sanitation, and biodiversity. The WSSD Plan of Action calls for halving the number of people without access to proper sanitation by 2015; restoring depleted fish stocks by 2015; and significantly reducing the extinction rate of the world's plants and animals by 2010.

"While far from perfect, the WSSD Plan of Action brings us forward in some issues," said Dr. La Vina. "The problem is that small steps are no longer sufficient when the world is faced with enormous environmental and development problems."

The WRI delegation also welcomed the WSSD's reaffirmation of Principle 10 and its support for the Partnership for Principle 10 (PP10). This principle was first enshrined in the 1992 Earth Summit Declaration and calls for public access to information, participation, and justice to ensure environmentally sustainable decisions.

The WRI delegation stressed that solutions to global environmental problems can be more effectively addressed through collaborations like PP10, rather than leaving them entirely to governments.

"This Summit will be remembered not for the treaties, the commitments, or the declarations it produced, but for the first stirrings of a new way of governing the global commons -- the beginnings of a shift from the stiff formal waltz of traditional diplomacy to the jazzier dance of improvisational solution-oriented partnerships that may include non-government organizations, willing governments and other stakeholders," said Lash.

The World Resources Institute (http://www.wri.org/wri) is an environmental think tank that goes beyond research to create practical ways to protect the Earth and improve people's lives.