Lots of talk but few specifics and no Will

national | miscellaneous | news report Thursday September 05, 2002 00:05 by Graham Caswell caswell at indigo dot ie

From the Earth Summit: Issue #8 of ECO Equity

The Earth Summit produced lots and lots and lots of talk - often full of high ideals. But there's almost no sign of real committment to real action.

The final issue of ECO Equity looks at what the summit did and didn't acheive. It didn't change global economic policies towards sustainable development. It didn't make corporations accountable for the environmental and social costs of their activities. It didn't shield international environmental agreements from the WTO. Overall the problem is that countries have acted in their own short-term national economic interests rather than genuinely working together to forge a sustainable development path for the future.

The full newsletter with all back copies is available at www.earthsummit-ireland.org/updates.htm

Also in this issue:

-Cancun or Bust! Buried in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation is a short sentence saying that almost every enforceable UN environmental agreement will now be unilaterally decided by the WTO, whose next ministerial is in September 2003, in Cancun, Mexico. Be there if you can.

-China and Russia Announce Ratification of Kyoto. The prospect of the Kyoto Protocol entering into force by the end of the yearis very real (a huge advance since the dark days following the US withdrawal)

-WSSD on Energy: Nothing for the Poor, Nothing for the Climate thanks to the US, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Canada, and Australia. There's not a single step forward.

-50 ways to screw a summit (with apologies to Paul Simon): "Hop on the bus, Colin, You don’t need to discuss much...."

-Mining Industry Off the Hook: The text on mining in the Plan of Implementation essentially endorses the existing operations of the mining industry globally and requires no change to the status quo.

-US Youth Commit, Delegates Quit! There's more to America than Bush.

-SUMMIT NOT IN VAIN: At least, civil society in the South has proved itself able to cooperate and make inroads where the G77 let its people down.

Eco-equity is published by Consumers International, the Danish 92 Group, Earthjustice, Friends of the Earth International, Greenpeace, Northern Alliance for Sustainability, Oxfam International, and WWF.

The full eco-equity newsletter is available in PDF format on the Earth Summit Ireland website along with all issues released since the beginning of the summit.