Theres lots more info at: http://www.rio-plus-10.org/ and http://www.radioearthsummit.org/

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BETRAYAL - But See You All in Mexico!

Johannesburg: Tuesday 3rd September. After nine days of talks, the Earth Summit is finally winding to an end. We have analysed the final text of the Programme of Implementation and found precisely TWO new and specific targets in the whole thing:

1. To halve by 2015 the proportion of people who · do not have access to basic sanitation (para 7), and 2. Establishment of marine protected networks · including representative networks by 2012 (para 31c) Ð which is really half a target, but we prefer to be generous in our praise.

And that's it. In every other case, existing commitments are simply reaffirmed, watered down, or trashed altogether.

Paragraph 5(a) promises to ãurge the developed countries · to make concrete efforts towards the target of 0.7% of GNP as official development assistanceä.

Paragraph 19(e) contains the disgraceful promotion of ãcleanä fossil fuels, a betrayal of the Kyoto Protocol to combat climate change (although the announcement of ratification by Canada, Canada and Russia this week is a welcome step).

Paragraph 22 talks about dangerous chemicals but is only ãaiming to achieve by 2020 that chemicals are produced in ways that lead to the minimisation of significant adverse effects on human healthä (!).

Paragraph 42 talks of ãa significant reduction in the current rate of loss of biological diversityä, a clear step backwards from the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.

We could go on, but the list of words and lost promises is nearly endless. Do not believe Government spin doctors who claim success for this Summit. It is by any objective test a failure.

Friends of the Earth International has strongly supported the Earth Summit. We desperately need binding international agreements to fight environmental threats to our common home, and such agreements require negotiations, open to media and civil society. But the so-called Programme of Implementation agreed at this summit barely begins to deal with the scale of the problems the world faces. It is a betrayal of hundreds of millions of poor and vulnerable people and their communities around the world. Governments have failed to set the necessary social and ecological limits to economic globalisation.

The chance to stem the tide of damage caused by the neoliberal economic ideology that dominates the developed world and institutions such as the World Trade Organisation has, for now, been missed. Instead many references to the WTO and its rules have been included in the Programme of Implementation. Even campaign victories such as preventing an unprecedented statement that would have made all commitments to environment and development subservient to WTO rules cannot change the bleak picture. The relationship between multilateral environmental agreements and world trade rules will still be left to the WTO to decide.

One important success was achieved by Friends of the Earth Ð the inclusion of clear language on the need to establish corporate accountability. However, the US is still attempting to undermine these words through squalid manoeuvres around a ãLetter of Interpretationä from Ambassador Ashe. FoEI now calls for a UN conference on corporate accountability by the end of 2003. This conference should be included in the Political Declaration. The draft text produced by the South African Government would place the issue before the UN General Assembly.

FoEI is disappointed with what was achieved here in Johannesburg. But we will continue its campaign for trade justice, rights for communities and rules for big business. We will also continue to call on developed countries to acknowledge their ecological debt to the developing world.

FoEI will now be taking its campaign ãDonât let big business rule the worldä to the Cancun WTO Conference.

Ricardo Navarro, Chair of Friends of the Earth International, commented: ãThe Earth Summit should have been about protecting the environment and fighting poverty and social destruction. Instead it has been hijacked by free market ideology, by a backward-looking, insular and ignorant US administration and its friends in Japan, Canada, Australia and OPEC, by a timid and confused European Union, and by the global corporations that help keep reactionary politicians in limousines. So, after nine days of waffle and posturing and horse-trading we have only two significant new targets to protect the environment and fight poverty and deprivation.

Daniel Mittler, Earth Summit Coordinator, commented: This is a betrayal of the millions of people around the world who looked to this Summit for real action, and particularly of poor people and vulnerable communities in the South. It is an indictment of the world leaders who came to this Summit and posed for photographs but lacked the vision and commitment to face the scale of the worldâs problems. A world where the economy runs beyond the capacity of political institutions to regulate and control it is in a deep crisis, and can never be fully secure or at peace. Nothing could make us more determined to fight on for the radical environmental action the world needs. See you all in Mexico!ä

- ENDS -

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US WRECKS EARTH SUMMIT

Johannesburg: Wednesday 4th September. The Bush Administration has been the single biggest obstacle toward achieving progress at this Summit. Despite Secretary of State Colin Powellâs shameless speech today, US intransigence has been obvious to the world. US refusal to agree to substantive agreements with timetables and targets is particularly egregious given the disproportionate share of global resources it consumes and environmental damage it does.

On August 2, 2002, 31 right wing groups and individuals sent a letter to President Bush asking his Administration to return from Johannesburg with no new targets and timetables. The US has done its best to pander to these interests. Only two new concrete targets were agreed (1).

Undermining Corporate Accountability:

The US has been obstructionist throughout the WSSD on critical issues such as global rules for business that would ensure high standards of corporate behaviour everywhere.

Despite the corporate malfeasance scandals that have rocked especially the US, the Americans are still trying to undermine corporate accountability negotiations taking place in Johannesburg. Countries agreed in the negotiations to develop and implement intergovernmental agreements on corporate responsibility and accountability. But the US sought to impose its own interpretation of the text on the rest of the world by demanding a "Letter of Interpretation" from the chair of the globalisation and trade negotiations. This interpretation would say that all countries agree that the agreement on corporate accountability has to do only with "existing" agreements.

This is a clear attempt to scuttle any effort to develop new, binding international rules for big business. It is impossible for an interpretive note to bind all countries Ð which is why Ethiopia and Norway objected formally. The issue could be raised again today by the US in plenary as the White House allegedly gave orders that the US could not accept the current text without its own interpretation prevailing.

Ignoring Climate Change and Imperiling the World:

The Bush Administration remains opposed to real action to combat climate change, despite producing one quarter of the worldâs climate emissions. US public finance institutions are subsidizing further dirty fossil fuel projects around the world. US Government inaction has led Friends of the Earth United States to file a lawsuit with Greenpeace and the City of Boulder, CO in the US District Court in San Francisco to compel the Overseas Private (OPIC) Investment Corporation and the Export-Import Bank (EX-Im) to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). This groundbreaking legal action alleges that OPIC and Ex-Im illegally provided over $32 billion in financing and insurance for oil fields, pipelines and coal-fired plants over the past 10 years without assessing their contribution to global warming and their impact on the U.S. environment required under key provisions of NEPA.

Forcing GMOs Against the Will of Developing Countries:

Friends of the Earth condemned Powell for his announcement that he deplored the action of countries that rejected US food aid that contained GMOs.

The stance of the US government advances the interests of multibillion dollar biotech companies looking for overseas markets. Friends of the Earth calls on governments to respect the right of countries to decide the type of food they want to eat and urges international institutions to provide non-GMO sources when countries in need request it.

Bush: Partnerships as the Solution:

Rather than binding action, the Bush Administration announced "signature partnerships" in the areas of water, energy, agriculture and forests. Only $20 million of the $970 million pledged to address these areas represents new money. Furthermore, the Administration is shirking Africa in other areas. For example, overall aid to Africa in FY 2003 declined by $39 million.

The Congo Basin Initiative is a key example of the Bush Administration's flawed partnerships approach. While supposedly benefiting forest protection and management in the highly biodiverse Congo Basin, the initiative will actually put more money into flawed programs that have not reduced illegal logging, empowered local communities or enabled sustainable forest management. The US has also dismissed concerns of local environmental groups about corruption in these countries and the close collusion between government officials and timber barons.

Leslie Fields of Friends of the Earth United States commented ãThe Bush Administration's actions at the WSSD reflect a sordid pandering to corporations and far right wing interest groups. People around the world have not have had their voices heard, but corporations continue to dominate US policy at Johannesburg.ä

Ricardo Navarro, Chair of Friends of the Earth International added: ãThroughout this Summit, the US Administration has betrayed our environment, and the needs of the poor and the vulnerable around the world. Thatâs why we were protesting during Colin Powellâs shameless and inadequate speech. The responsibility of the US for the relative failure of this Summit is paramount. The whole world knows it. Nothing the Secretary of State had to say will make the slightest difference to this damning verdict.ä

- ENDS -

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POLITICAL DECLARATION + H2O = HOT AIR

Johannesburg: Wednesday 4th September.

The Earth Summit has broken up after publication of a notably feeble Political Declaration, watered down from the original draft after continued obstruction from the US and a minority of other countries. The Declaration was described by Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) as "yet another betrayal" of the millions of poor and vulnerable people around the world who looked to the Summit for real action on debt, climate change, deforestation, water and many other vital issues. The Political Declaration could have been an opportunity to compensate for the lack of specific targets and timetables in the Plan of Implementation.

It is particularly deplorable that the Declaration makes no mention of the need to move from fossil fuels to renewable energy. The declaration also contains weakened language on corporate accountability.

Commenting, Daniel Mittler, Friends of the Earth International's Summit Co-ordinator said: "This feeble and watered down Political Declaration is yet another betrayal of all those around the world who looked to this Summit to tackle the environmental and social crisis facing the planet. What a tragic missed opportunity this Summit has been - thanks to the utterly obstructive tactics of the US and the free market ideology of the corporations that pull political strings in the background. The Declaration's welcome statement about the importance of multilateral agreements and action lacks credibility given the politics of this Summit. Above all, the US demands international support whenever it feels the need, but refuses international co-operation whenever it chooses. This is not diplomacy. It is the crude and counterproductive application of power."

Visit www.foei.org for more information and www.rio-plus-10.org for downloadable quality photos

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Friends of the Earth Melbourne (Australia) PO Box 222 Fitzroy 3065 312 Smith St Collingwood Phone: (03) 9419 8700 Fax: (03) 9416 2081 (International: tel. +61 (3) 9419 8700; fax +61 (3) 9416 2081) www.melbourne.foe.org.au

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