News Analysis: World Leaders Facing Tough Task at Earth Summit

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, September 02, 2002

News Analysis: World Leaders Facing Tough Task at Earth Summit

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World leaders are jetting into Johannesburg Sunday for the high-level segment of the Earth Summit, out of which the world expects concrete actions to tackle global poverty while preserving environment in the decade ahead.

At its close on Sept. 4, the summit is expected to issue a declaration renewing political commitment to sustainable development and an implementation plan for the meeting goals of preserving the environment and erasing poverty.

However, the draft Plan of Implementation which is described as the cornerstone of the summit still remained bogged down on several major issues, with analysts here doubting whether a breakthrough could be reached at the end of the summit.

Ever since the start of the summit on Aug. 26, government negotiators have plunged into negotiations on the draft plan, a 71-page document containing recommendations on how to realize the sustainable development.

Not one word in the draft document is legally binding, but it could have a resounding political impact because it will determine the environmental agenda for the next 10 years, and its text is likely to be the model for any legally binding treaties that emerge.

For that reason, the draft text has become a political war zone, with different groups representing the interests of developed and developing countries contending each other during the past days of negotiations.

Delegates said the main deadlocked issues include reducing or phasing out farm subsidies by developed countries to ensure wider access for the Third World goods to rich markets, and setting the target to halve, by 2015, the number of people without access to decent sanitation.

Also included is the official development aid from rich countries to the poor. The United States wants to attach wording that would link an increase in aid to efficient, non-corrupt governance, a demand rejected by developing countries as unacceptable interference.

The United Nations officials said that 95 percent of the text of the draft plan had already been agreed upon, but they admitted that the remaining issues are most contentious and difficult to solve.

On Saturday, negotiators reached an agreement on the wording of the text to support the Kyoto climate change pact without embarrassing the United States, the major state to shun the treaty.

The agreed text reads "states that have ratified strongly urge those that have not done so to ratify Kyoto in a timely manner."

However, the deep rift between the North and South is the issue of agricultural subsidies.

The United States and the European Union (EU) share common ground on maintaining huge subsidies to their farmers, blamed for destroying the livelihood of hundreds of millions of producers in developing countries.

Neither wants to go beyond a vague promise made at the ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Doha, Qatar, last year.

The Doha meeting called for substantial improvements in market access, reductions of all forms of subsidies, and substantial reductions in trade-distorting domestic support.

Developed countries, in particular the United States and the EU, have come under fire at the summit for the 350 billion US dollars a year they pump into the agricultural subsidies, which developing countries say makes it impossible for them to compete.

Delegates from developing countries also said that the subsidies also allow farmers in the North to dump cheap produce to the South.

They pointed to the fact that agricultural products make up a large part of their export products, saying that if their products can not enter developed markets, their efforts to eradicate poverty and protect environment would be greatly hampered because of shortage of funds.

They urged developed countries to take concrete steps in this regard so that they will have the means to implement whatever agreed upon at the Earth Summit.

On Sunday, the EU sent a signal that the region was prepared to phase out its huge agricultural subsidies.

"Our long-term objective is clear: We will reform our agricultural policy, and we will bring down trade-distorting subsidies," said Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Danish prime minister and EU president, at a business meeting on the sidelines of the summit.

He said that the shortest route to a cleaner and sustainable environment was to raise standards of living in the developing nations through development and economic growth.

"The rich countries should open their markets to the goods that many poor countries are best suited to produce, namely food and textiles," he said.

However, analysts said that promise is one thing, action is another. It is even difficult for the EU to reach a consensus within its member countries on the issue as it is also hotly debated within the block.

Richard McCormick, head of the International Chamber of Commerce, told journalists shortly after Rasmussen's speech that business had been pushing for the Doha trade talks to get going, but predicted a long and difficult process.

During the daily briefing on Sunday, UN advisor on the negotiations Lowell Flanders said that issues still outstanding inthe draft plan include finance and trade, good governance, sanitation, energy and health care.

A senior UN official said negotiations on the document could in theory continue right up to midnight on Wednesday, the last day of the summit.

At a separate briefing, South African Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin said that there is a real prospect to achieve a historic agreement at the summit. "We shouldn't be surprised if the final negotiations are difficult," he said.

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