Rio +5: Earth Summit II Backslides on 1992 Promises
June 27, 1997
United Nations, New York: Presidents and Prime Ministers this week
made sweeping political statements while their civil servants produced
meaningless and empty statements of intent, said WWF-World Wide Fund
For Nature on the closing day of the Earth Summit II.
"The Earth Summit II choked in even making promises," said Gordon
Shepherd, Director of International Policy for WWF. "What the world
expected was a push towards implementation of Agenda 21."
"We would have been much better served if the Heads of State had
endorsed what was agreed in Rio in 1992, and then used their energy to
develop funded action plans with targets and timetables for
implementation," added Shepherd. "The Rio agreements were rightly
hailed as a major success, but the promises made there have been
betrayed in New York this week."
WWF cited the following as failures of Earth Summit II:
- Forests: Governments failed completely to agree on targets and
timetables to implement the commitments they made in Rio five years ago,
and since then through the Inter-Governmental Panel on Forests. Instead
of action on key issues, such as establishing networks of ecologically
representative protected areas and measures to halt illegal logging, they
spent their time arguing about how many more years to spend sitting in
meetings.
- Climate: Leaders failed to commit to a clear, near-term target for
reducing carbon dioxide emissions despite pressures on the US and
Japan to follow the lead by EU and Alliance of Small Island States
(AOSIS). WWF has been urging governments to commit to reducing CO2
emissions by 20 per cent below 1990 levels by the year 2005.
- Finance and Trade: Progress on these issues underpins progress
needed here and in other fora, such as the climate change negotiations.
Rio recognized that trade and environment should be mutually supportive.
That was undermined here and no progress was made on ensuring that
international economic agreements, such as the Multilateral Agreement
on Investment being negotiated by the OECD, support sustainable
development. In addition, governments failed to set a timetable for
achieving the ODA target of 0.7 percent identified in 1972 and confirmed
in 1992.
- Toxic chemicals: In spite of a very strong report from the
Inter-Governmental Forum on Chemical Safety (established following the
first Earth Summit), no specific national action was agreed to deal with
toxic chemicals. WWF has been calling for urgent national action on
endocrine disruptors, including through Pollutant Release and Transfer
Registers and Pesticide Reduction programmes.
- Local initiatives: One of the most promising successes of Rio was
the implementation of Agenda 21, particularly through community and
local action groups, as well as small enterprises, and by some
governments. WWF's Spotlight on Solutions: A People's Agenda,
highlighted some of these success stories. But these will remain islands
in a sea of unsustainability in the face of a complete lack of support from
the international community.
"Community groups and others that were inspired by Rio didn't receive
the slightest encouragement to continue their work," said Carole
Saint-Laurent, UNCED follow-up coordinator. "Governments have
congratulated themselves for these promising initiatives, but failed to give
the needed political and financial support. The international community
has failed to provide a supportive political environment to ensure the long
term sustainability of local actions."
"Five years ago governments agreed on where the global community
should be headed. It is a tragedy that the international community has not
managed to set realistic targets for determining whether or not we have
at last begun to reverse environmental damage, and improve prospects
for sustainable development and poverty eradication," Shepherd
concluded.
WWF was also concerned at the lack of progress in strengthening the
role of indigenous peoples. In fact, five countries - Brazil, United States,
Venezuela, Indonesia and Canada - actually set up a closed contact
group which kept indigenous peoples organizations and NGOs out of the
discussions.
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Contact: Elizabeth Foley and Someshwar Singh at +41-22-364 9553/54.
Fax +41-22-364 8307
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