Jordan Times
16 May 2002
Internet:
http://www.jordantimes.com/Thu/homenews/homenews10.htm
AMMAN - The heads of the
Kingdom's 99 municipalities on Wednesday endorsed the Declaration of Support
to the Earth Charter at the Greater Amman Municipality. The adoption of the
Earth Charter by local municipalities is intended to promote an integrated
and strategic plan in Jordan to advance sustainable development in
preparation for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). The
event, at which HRH Princess Basma acted as patron, was organised by the
Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development (JOHUD) and the Ministry of
Municipal and Rural Affairs and the Environment, in cooperation with the
General Corporation for Environment Protection (GCEP). In addressing
yesterday's national gathering, Princess Basma said: "The consequences of
wasting natural resources and harming the environment -- especially after
the spread of globalisation and its repercussions on the world as a whole --
are no longer limited...but rather everywhere in varying degrees."
"Endorsing the Earth Charter Declaration will be to our benefit because it
is in agreement with our traditions, values and customs," said the Princess.
According to Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs and the Environment
Abdul Razzaq Tbeishat, "the Earth Charter forms an `international code of
ethics.'" It calls for the "respect and care for the community of life,
ecological integrity, social and economic justice and democracy,
non-violence and peace." The charter will "help bridge the North-South gap,"
said the minister. The Earth Council is an international NGO dedicated to
ensuring the follow-up and implementation of the results of the Rio Earth
Summit. The task of the commission is to oversee and guide the Earth Charter
through to its submission at the United Nations. Princess Basma is a member
of the Earth Council and Earth Charter Commission. In March 2002, Princess
Basma took part in the meetings of the Earth Charter Commission that were
convened at UNESCO headquarters, where the commission finalised and endorsed
the Earth Charter and approved its worldwide advocacy campaign. In
supporting the Earth Council's initiative in Jordan, the Princess also acted
as patron of a conference last October, organised by JOHUD and the Greater
Amman Municipality, to spearhead the Declaration of Support to the Earth
Charter, which was signed by eight civil society institutions and
environmental organisations. The event was followed by an Earth Charter
Regional Meeting in November, which brought together around 50 participants
from the Arab world to endorse the "Amman Statement of the Earth Charter,"
and also formulated recommendations within an Arab context, which will be
submitted during the World Summit on Sustainable Development in
Johannesburg, South Africa.
The Guardian
16 May 2002
Internet:
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/green/story/0,9061,716185,00.html
Britain will today launch its
strongest attack on George Bush's rejection of the Kyoto climate protocol,
as the government warns that Washington's actions threaten to make the
planet "uninhabitable". Angered by the US government's decision to rule out
signing up to Kyoto for the next 10 years, the environment minister, Michael
Meacher, writes in today's Guardian that the world is running out of time.
"We do not have much time and we do not have any serious option. If we do
not act quickly to minimise runaway feedback effects [from global warming]
we run the risk of making this planet, our home, uninhabitable." The
minister's intervention came after Washington's chief climate negotiator,
Harlan Watson, said in London earlier this week that an independent US
initiative to cut emissions of greenhouse gases would not be assessed until
2012. "We are not going to be part of the Kyoto protocol for the foreseeable
future," he announced. Mr Watson's remarks prompted an outspoken attack on
the US by Mr Meacher. "I am so disappointed that this week the US refused to
reconsider coming back into the climate talks for 10 years. The need for
action is urgent," he writes. Tony Blair also admitted last night that
Britain and the US were at odds over the Kyoto protocol, the international
agreement drawn up to help slow, and mitigate the effects of, climate
change. In an interview on BBC2's Newsnight, the prime minister said: "On
Kyoto, there is a difference of opinion. We have made that clear." Mr
Meacher takes a swipe at the US's apparent complacency when he warns that
there are strong reasons for "doubting the comforting US picture that
there's plenty of time to deal with the problem". The minister adds: "One
[reason] is that climate change may be not steady but abrupt; the other is
that the pressures we inflict on the climate may trigger wholly unexpected
developments from feedback effects." Latest scientific evidence suggests
the impact of climate change on Britain could be "faster and sharper" than
expected, says Mr Meacher. Almost two million homes in England and Wales are
at risk from floods, and Britain will experience a 65% increase in river
flooding if defences do not account for climate change. "The UN
intergovernmental panel on climate change ... has forecast that global
average temperatures will rise by between 1.4 to 5.8 degrees Celsius by
2100. "That may not sound much. But it is worth remembering that the last
ice age, when much of the northern hemisphere was buried under an ice pack
thousands of feet thick, was triggered by a fall in temperature of only some
five degrees Celsius." A rise in temperature of just 5.8C could melt
glaciers and Greenland's ice sheet, causing a rise in sea water that could
submerge island nations. Mr Meacher's intervention comes after the deputy
prime minister, John Prescott, said he would not attend an environmental
summit at a Bali resort next month. Mr Prescott was criticised for
considering attending the summit, a preparatory meeting for the Earth Summit
in Johannesburg this September. Amid reports that the trip would cost
taxpayers £250,000, he said Margaret Beckett, the environment secretary,
would be the only cabinet minister attending. Speaking to the parliamentary
Labour party, the deputy prime minister said: "I'm not going to Bali. But I
live in hope."
Reuters via Planet Ark
16 May 2002
Internet:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15977/story.htm
JOHANNESBURG - A leading South
African campaigner urged Western nations yesterday to ensure that a
forthcoming world development summit produced action to combat AIDS and
poverty in Africa and not just words. Zakes Hlatswayo, president of Sangoco,
the South African coalition of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), called
on the West to avoid adding to a history of major summits whose resolutions
were seldom implemented. NGOs, including environmentalists, labour, youth
and women's groups, will be represented by a 40,000-strong delegation at the
World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg from August 26 to
September 4. A follow-up to the Rio Earth Summit of 1992, it aims to map out
a concrete set of action plans to reduce global poverty and the North/South
income gap in a sustainable way without inflicting irreparable damage to the
environment. Hlatswayo told Reuters there had been past commitments by
governments to fight poverty and improve the lives of Africans, but no
tangible action followed the lofty promises. The South African government
expects 65,000 delegates for the summit, including at least 100 heads of
state. "We need the summit to go beyond rhetoric. Churning out another list
of development needs will not be good enough, it would be a failure,"
Hlatswayo said. "To be successful, we would expect institutions to be put in
place to implement agreements," he said.
PICKETS AND DEMONSTRATIONS
Hlatswayo said South African NGOs
and their peers from around the globe would voice their opinions through,
forums, pickets and demonstrations, because "one cannot criminalise the
expression of ideas, it is a democratic right." "We would like to see a
focus on the issues of AIDS and other diseases, on poverty, on easier access
to productive resources within southern Africa," he said. Malaria is
Africa's number one killer while AIDS is decimating the cream of African
professionals and is considered the continent's biggest development
challenge. Africans want greater pressure on Western pharmaceutical
companies to provide access to cheaper drugs, especially for AIDS,
tuberculosis and malaria. Hlatswayo said NGOs planning to attend the summit
were hampered by a lack of cash as governments had not backed their
commitment to ensure civil society participation with money. Only 15 percent
of his group's 100-120 million rand (about $10-12 million) budget has been
delivered by foreign donors. "My greatest fear, and the fear grows real
every day, is that we are not seeing a flow of resources as well as we
thought we would have," he said. "The international commitment to NGOs
remains purely rhetoric, it is not backed by action." "When you look at
Africa as a continent, one cannot avoid seeing the impact of colonisation
and deprivation. It is inevitable that we reflect on how this impacts on
Africa and (must) provide funding to help reverse things," he said.
Reuters Via Planet Ark
16 May 2002
Internet:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15985/story.htm
PARIS - Despite the best efforts
of a minority of firms, world industry as a whole is failing to pull its
weight on protecting the environment, a United Nations report concluded
yesterday. Advances in the recycling of key materials and in car efficiency
were still being outweighed by the effects of increased consumption,
including a trend towards disposable products, the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) found. "Despite many good examples of how
industries are reducing waste and emissions...we have found that the
majority of companies are still doing business as usual," UNEP chief Klaus
Toepfer said in a statement. Issued three months before the Johannesburg
"Earth Summit 2" on the environment, the UNEP report sought to measure
progress made since the 1992 Rio Earth Summit that aimed to come up with
ways of balancing environmental concerns with economic growth. The report
drew on industry evidence that recycled metal now satisfied about a third of
world demand for aluminium, while the iron and steel sector was saving
energy costs by recovering more of its product from scrap. Yet it cited the
"rebound effect" of industry responding to increased and changing consumer
demand with new "throw away" products that generated more ecologically
harmful waste. "The clear message emerges: growing consumption levels are
overtaking environmental gains," UNEP found. Earth Summit 2, running from
August 26 to September 4, will aim to hammer out a set of action plans to
pull people out of poverty without inflicting damage on the environment.
However, there have already been concerns it will fall below expectations.
The European Union has said preparations are going ahead too slowly, while
ecologist groups have accused the United States of trying to block any major
decisions at the summit.
Washington File
15 May 2002
Internet:
http://usinfo.state.gov/cgi-bin/washfile/display.pl?p=/products/washfile/latest&f=02051501.glt&t=/products/washfile/newsitem.shtml
Washington -- U.S. officials
preparing for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) see growing
support for the creation of action-oriented partnerships between
governments, the private sector and citizen groups as the way to fight
poverty and improve living standards in countries around the world. The
summit, which will be one of the largest gatherings of world leaders ever
held, will take place August 26 to September 4 in Johannesburg, South
Africa. The meeting comes 10 years after the 1992 Rio Summit on the
Environment in which goals were established to guide sustainable development
into the future. Anthony Rock, principal deputy assistant secretary of state
with the Bureau of Oceans, International Environmental and Scientific
Affairs, said in a recent interview that the United States will place heavy
emphasis on social development, especially issues related to poverty
eradication, at the upcoming Johannesburg Summit. It is estimated that
close to a third of the world's people live on less than two dollars a day
and lack access to clean water, sanitation and electricity. "Poverty not
only saps human potential and drains economies, but at the same time is
destroying environments and is breeding social unrest," Rock said. "This
social unrest and economic instability, and subsequent political unrest,
becomes a breeding ground not only for disease and impoverished
circumstances, but potentially for crime, corruption and ultimately
terrorism." Rock noted that this view -- placing special emphasis on people
and poverty eradication -- was repeated several times during his recent trip
to Europe, where he met with numerous government and private sector
officials and spoke at the European Policy Center. "We believe that you
simply will not have sustainable development if you cannot at least raise
the quality of life among the world's poverty stricken," Rock said. "So this
summit is an opportunity for nations of the world, and particularly the
United States, to emphasize the value of coalitions and partnerships ...
with the goal of building up the poor and disenfranchised elements of global
society." Rock said that while governments set the basis for development,
by and large, development is carried out by the private sector and civil
society. "So from our point-of-view, if we don't have partnerships with the
private sector and with civil society as part of the process, we will not
make an effective contribution to sustainable development," Rock said.
International delegates at the latest round of New York-based preparatory
talks for the summit supported proposals for partnerships devoted to
specific actions to tackle social and environmental concerns. This
represents a major departure from business as usual, according to officials.
Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans, International Environmental and
Scientific Affairs John Turner, speaking at a summit preparatory meeting in
Johannesburg in April, said delegates expressed strong interest in creating
coalitions of partners that can come together to make new commitments to
action. Such commitments, he said, "will really make a difference around the
globe to lift people's aspirations .. and perhaps to develop some new models
... to incorporate economic, environmental and social agendas." "I truly
believe, as does the United States, that Johannesburg offers an historic
opportunity to provide a new way of building sustainability," Turner said.
Rock said these partnerships would be called on to take action in certain
key sectors that are crucial to advancing the poverty eradication agenda of
the summit. These key sectors would include water, energy, food security,
health and education. Environment ministers from the group of eight (G-8)
industrialized countries, meeting April 12-14 in Banff, Canada, reached
agreement that the world summit must deliver partnerships that can produce
tangible results and mobilize action at all levels. For example, they
called for strategic partnerships to promote sustainable water resource
management, including access to safe water and sanitation in developing
countries. In the field of energy, they said specific projects are needed to
reduce the number of people without access to energy supplies, increase
energy efficiency, improve the conservation of energy resources, and develop
new technologies and promote the use and share of renewable energy sources.
Turner emphasized that the participation of the private sector will be
crucial. "Business needs to be at the summit in a major way, ready to make
commitments, offering their inputs and ideas," he said. Assistant Secretary
of State for African Affairs Walter Kansteiner, speaking at the April
preparatory meeting in Johannesburg, said that official development
assistance is very important, but that ultimately the private sector must
get involved to help Africa reach its fullest potential. "In that light, I'm
here in South Africa leading a group of private equity fund managers ...
(and) talking to African entrepreneurs on what their capital requirements
and needs are, and seeing if there isn't a match -- if there isn't a
partnership -- between some American capital and some very good African
business plans," he said. Rock noted that the most effective
poverty-reduction strategy rests with an open, stable, vibrant, growing
economy, and that efforts would be focused on ways to strengthen developing
country economies to become supporters of their own sustainability. He said,
in this regard, the importance of private capital flows cannot be
overemphasized. "What goes along with private capital flow is not just the
money or the access to markets, but also new technologies, management, good
environmental practices, and ultimately that ability of countries to manage
their resources more efficiently and adopt sustainable practices," he said.
"It's the engine that helps that occur." Under Secretary of State for
Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs Alan Larson, speaking recently
to the European Partners for the Environment in Brussels, said that foreign
investment flows to and among developing countries amount to $200,000
million ($200 billion) annually. He noted that developing countries receive
on average about $50 million every year in aid from donor nations, which is
much smaller than the amount received from financial flows. "Foreign
investment flows to developing countries have grown exponentially and can
increase much more as countries put in place sound investment policies," he
said. Larson added that official development aid also plays an indispensable
role, especially if it helps countries tap into the larger flows of private
finance. President Bush, in remarks delivered March 22 at the U.N.
Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico, proposed a
50-percent increase in U.S. core development assistance over the next three
years, which eventually will mean a $5,000 million annual increase over
current levels. These new funds will go into what Bush called a new
Millennium Challenge Account that fund initiatives to help developing
countries improve their economies and standards of living. Bush also called
for a new compact for development -- defined by greater accountability for
rich and poor nations alike. He said greater contributions from developed
nations must be linked to greater responsibility from developing nations.
"We must tie greater aid to political and legal and economic reforms," Bush
said. "When nations adopt reforms, each dollar of aid attracts two dollars
of private investments. When aid is linked to good policy, four times as
many people are lifted out of poverty compared to old aid practices."
UNEP News Release
15 May 2002
Internet:
http://www.unep.org/Documents/Default.asp?DocumentID=248&ArticleID=3049
Industry and the environment -
achievements, unfinished business and future challenges. Global launch of 22
Industry Reports prepared for the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable
Development PARIS/NAIROBI, 15 May 2002 - There is a growing gap between the
efforts of business and industry to reduce their impact on the environment
and the worsening state of the planet, a new report by the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) reveals today. This gap, says UNEP, is due to
the fact that in most industry sectors, only a small number of companies are
actively striving for sustainability, i.e. actively integrating social and
environmental factors into business decisions. And, secondly, because
improvements are being overtaken by economic growth and increasing demand
for goods and services: a phenomenon known as the "rebound effect." The new
findings appear in the UNEP overview report 10 years after Rio: the UNEP
assessment. This overview report assesses progress todate by industry on
sustainability issues. It draws on the 22 global sustainability reports
written by different industry sectors ranging from accounting and
advertising to waste and water management. This collection of reports is
known as the Industry as a Partner for Sustainable Development series.
"Today, we are still confronted with worsening global trends related to
environmental problems like global warming, loss of biodiversity, land
degradation, air and water pollution," said Klaus Toepfer, UNEP's Executive
Director. "Some companies have risen to the challenge. Such efforts need to
be acknowledged and applauded." "However," Toepfer continued, "The new
reports clearly show that progress since Rio has been uneven within and
amongst industry sectors and countries. Despite many good examples of how
industries are reducing waste and emissions, becoming more energy efficient,
and helping poor communities to meet their basic needs we have found that
the majority of companies are still doing business as usual."
Congratulating those that have worked with UNEP to produce the industry
sector reports, Toepfer said, "The industry associations, and others that
embarked on this reporting process with UNEP, are to be congratulated for
their first attempt at compiling a global sustainability progress report for
their sector." Each report, written by industry representatives in an
unprecedented cooperation with the UN, labor and non-governmental
organizations, looks at achievements, unfinished business and future
challenges with respect to implementing Agenda 21 - the global action plan
to save the planet that was agreed to at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. In
response to the findings, UNEP has identified priority areas for business
and industry and suggests a number of recommendations. These include:
spreading the use of "best practices" that bring "triple dividends' -
economic, environmental and social; greater integration of environmental and
social criteria into mainstream business decision-making; and improving the
implementation and monitoring of voluntary initiatives and industry
self-regulation. All the sector reports highlight the crucial role of
governments, combining regulatory, economic and voluntary instruments, in
spurring social and technological innovation, and in ensuring that laggard
or negligent companies do not benefit at the expense of those investing in
best practices. "Significant efforts have been made by participating
industries in reducing their ecological footprint," said Jacqueline Aloisi
de Larderel, UNEP's Assistant Executive Director and director of the team
that helped produced the reports. "But, it is in industry's own
self-interest to do more to spread best practice and raise the performance
levels of all its members everywhere. Not enough companies, particularly
small and medium-sized ones are leading the way and there is insufficient
monitoring." Other recommendations from UNEP include the development of
"sustainable entrepreneurship" in less developed countries as part of the
wider goal to combat poverty, and the need to expand and support
environmental and sustainability reporting. "Since Rio," Mrs Aloisi de
Larderel continued, "more than 2000 companies have issued reports on their
environmental performance, but corporate sustainability reporting is still a
minority practice in many industries and countries, particularly where legal
frameworks or public pressure is weak." Stressing the growing disparity
among world regions and the need to make corporate environmental and social
responsibility a reality, she said, "There is a growing awareness among
business and industry that the social side of global sustainable development
needs to be taken into account alongside environmental and economic aspects.
The industry reports need to be seen as part of a long-term process of
dialogue and what matters is not so much the past, but the direction in
which we are heading."
PROGRESS
On the positive side, the reports
reveal an increased awareness by industry of environmental and social
issues. In many cases this is reflected by more environmental reporting and
the development and use of tools like ISO 14000, life-cycle management and
voluntary commitments to integrate sustainability into business strategies
and activities. In some cases, this awareness can be seen in improved
environmental performance. This is especially true in areas like cleaner
production and waste minimization where there have been significant advances
over the last ten years driven largely by business self-interest in reducing
treatment costs and increasing competitiveness. For example, the aluminium
industry reports that recycled metal now satisfies about a third of world
demand for aluminium. It says that total recycling of aluminium in the form
of beverage cans show rates that range from 79 % in Japan and 78 % in Brazil
to 62 % in the US and 41 % in Europe. In another example, the iron and steel
industry reports that by recycling nearly 300 million tonnes of scrap each
year, they do not have to extract 475 million tonnes of natural iron bearing
ore. They estimate that this saves the energy equivalent of 160 million
tonnes of hard coal. On the down side increased economic activity and the
associated rise in consumption means waste generation rates per capita
continue to increase around the world. New "throw-away" products continue to
be introduced by industry to meet changing consumer needs and expectations,
with little or no consideration of sustainable development beyond short-term
economic gain. The waste industry example is repeated in other reports and
the clear message emerges: growing consumption levels are overtaking
environmental gains.
FUTURE CHALLENGES
In their reports, some industry
sectors have outlined specific targets to reduce their impact on the
environment and support sustainable development. For example, the
Refrigeration industry wants, "to develop more environmentally friendly,
energy efficient vapor compression systems with ambitious objectives:
reduction of energy consumption by 30 to 50 percent and reduction of
refrigerant leakage by 50 per cent." While the chemicals industry says it
will, "Develop and implement a core set of quantitative indicators of
performance towards achievement of sustainable development." And the
Advertising sector wants to "Find brand champions for sustainability." Some
reports put emphasis on "best practice." The Electricity report says
"electric power companies should implement Guidelines for Best Practices to
improve their operations and reduce environmental impacts." And the Food and
Drink sector calls for "better global co-ordination... in order to share
best practices and to facilitate progress on sustainability, and that
sustainable agricultural practices need to be fully supported so that the
become increasingly systematic and globally widespread." Others sectors keep
their future challenges and commitments more general. The automotive sector
says it will "further enhance the ecological efficiency of vehicles
throughout the entire life-cycle." The Aluminium report is "committed to
increasing global recycling rates." While the coal industry highlights
"furthering the development and deployment of cleaner coal and carbon
sequestration technologies worldwide" and the construction report calls for
"further reducing CO2 emissions in the built environment through the
development and integration of renewable energy technologies." "Industry is
a key partner for sustainable development," says Klaus Toepfer. "We rely on
industry, not only for reducing the environmental impacts of the products
and services it provides us with, we also increasingly depend upon industry
for the innovative and entrepreneurial skills that are needed to help meet
sustainability challenges." "In a world increasingly interconnected
economically, environmentally and socially this will require not only
partnerships with governments and civil society, but also for industry to be
fully transparent about its level of progress. This UNEP-facilitated
reporting initiative is an important step toward reaching this goal," he
said. The 22 reports cover the following industry sectors: Accounting,
Advertising, Aluminium, Automotive, Aviation, Chemicals, Coal, Construction,
Consulting engineering, Electricity, Fertilizer, Finance and insurance, Food
and drink, Information & communications technology, Iron and steel, Oil and
gas, Railways, Refrigeration, Road transport, Tourism, Waste management and
Water management. They have been prepared as a specific input to the World
Summit on Sustainable Development, scheduled to take place in Johannesburg,
South Africa, from 26 August to 4 September 2002.
The UNEP overview report and the
22 individual sector reports are available on the Web at:
http://www.uneptie.org/outreach/wssd/sectors/reports.htm
Associated Press
15 May 2002
Internet:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020515/ap_wo_en_ge/oecd_ministerial_meeting_2
PARIS - Ministers from the
world's most developed countries opened a two-day meeting in Paris on
Wednesday to review prospects for an economic recovery, development and the
impact of terrorism on prosperity. Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt,
chairing the gathering at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development, expressed "cautious optimism" about an upturn in the world's
economy in the second half of this year. However, the prime minister
reflected the growing concern among trading partners of the United States
over its new farm subsidy bill and recent implementation of tariffs on steel
imports. "I'm anxious about what's been happening on the issues of steel and
agriculture," Verhofstadt said. He said that several delegations had voiced
their concern about agricultural and steel subsidies, saying they fly in the
face of efforts to open markets. The two most senior members of the U.S.
government on trade issues, Commerce Secretary Don Evans and Trade
Representative Robert Zoellick, were not present at the meeting of the
30-member OECD. Deputy Trade Representative Peter Frederick Allgeier was
attending in their place. Business and labor leaders, along with members of
international organizations, also joined the gathering at the Paris-based
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a think tank of 30
industrialized nations. The meeting opened with discussions on how to
promote growth and reduce unemployment as the world economy gathers steam.
Talks also focused on ways to combat financial crime and bribery. On
Thursday, delegates were to look at how best to contribute to a new round of
international trade negotiations and examine poverty reduction strategies in
a follow-up to the recent U.N. Conference on Financing for Development in
Monterrey, Mexico. OECD ministers also were to meet with their African
counterparts to discuss the New Partnership for African Development, or
NEPAD, ahead of the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development in
South Africa this August.
The Jakarta Post
15 May 2002
Internet:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20020515.B02
United Nations Secretary-General
Kofi Annan said on Tuesday that he expected concrete results in the areas of
water and sanitation, energy, health, agriculture, and biodiversity at the
latest round of the World Summit on sustainable development, to be held in
Johannesburg in August. "These are five areas in which progress will offer
all human beings a chance of achieving prosperity that will not only last
their own lifetime, but can be enjoyed by their children and grandchildren
too," he said in a statement on Tuesday. Concentrating on these five areas
will produce an ambitious but achievable program of practical steps to
improve the lives of human beings, while protecting the global environment,
Annan said. He said that he hoped water would be provided to at least one
billion people who lacked clean drinking water and two billion without
proper sanitation. There should be access to energy to more than two
billion people who lacked modern energy services; the promotion of renewable
energy; the reduction of over-consumption and ratification of the Kyoto
Protocol to address climate change. Health issues should address the
effects of toxic and hazardous materials; reduce air pollution and lower the
incidence of malaria and African guinea worm, which were linked to polluted
water and poor sanitation. Nations ought to work to reverse land
degradation, which effected about two-thirds of the world's agricultural
lands, and reverse the processes that had destroyed about half of the
world's tropical rainforests and mangroves. The success of the World Summit
in August, however, hinges on the accomplishments on the preparatory
committee (prepcom) meeting to be held in Bali later this month through
early June. More than 6,000 delegates from 189 governments are expected to
attend the preparatory meeting at the Bali International Convention Center
in Nusa Dua, to be held from May 27 through June 7. In a media briefing on
Tuesday, Indonesia's preparatory committee chairwoman Erna Witoelar said
that the meeting in Bali was expected to result in the drafting of three
documents, all of which would be endorsed by the heads of State in
Johannesburg. The three documents comprise a political declaration agreed
to by the heads of state and government, an implementation program that
specifies what priority actions governments agree are needed, and a document
of partnership initiatives or specific undertakings that will bring forward
real action in particular areas without the need for global consensus on
details. Annan said that new initiatives for sustainable development were
needed because the present model of development -- albeit bringing privilege
and prosperity to about 20 percent of humanity -- had also exacted a heavy
price by degrading the planet and depleting its resources. "In Johannesburg
we will have a chance to catch up," he said.
Reuters
14 May 2002
Internet:
http://reuters.com/news_article.jhtml;jsessionid=PRUCRV25ZYOZCCRBAEKSFFAKEEATIIWD?type=sciencenews&StoryID=960377
TORONTO (Reuters) - The
environmental and social costs of closing and rehabilitating old and
abandoned mines around the world are likely in the trillions of dollars, and
far beyond the capability of mining companies alone to deal with, Sir Robert
Wilson, chairman of London-based metals giant Rio Tinto Plc said on
Tuesday. Wilson told Reuters at a mining industry conference on sustainable
development in Toronto that a recent estimate puts rehabilitation costs just
in the United States, where regulation is stricter than in many other
countries, at $35 billion. "If you look at where the real problems are, in
Russia, Eastern Europe, South Africa, India, China, the extent of the (mine)
legacy issues is enormous, and it's totally beyond the capability of this
industry, either financially or technically, to make a meaningful
contribution to that," Wilson said. "Huge" and "gigantic" were other terms
being tossed around to describe the problem of old and abandoned mines at
the three-day Global Mining Initiative meeting in Toronto, which is being
held in preparation for the World Summit for Sustainable Development in
Johannesburg in August. But attempts were few at fixing an exact cost on
what the industry calls "legacy issues" -- the environmental destruction and
tears in the social fabric left over from a 100 years of mining projects
that no one has taken responsibility for. And they are still happening,
some experts at the conference said. James Kuipers, of the U.S. Center for
Science in Public Participation, which provides technical services to local
and tribal governments, said his group estimates that 95 percent of
operating mines in the United States have only vague plans for dealing with
the environmental consequences of shutting down, such as the pollution of
local water courses. He said that in cases where owners have just walked
away or gone bankrupt, it is the taxpayer that has been stuck with the
liability. "The public no longer favors new mining in the United States,
and mistrusts existing mines," he said. Wilson told Reuters that most
large, established companies are able to come to terms with mine closures.
Rio Tinto and several other big companies make serious provisions for
environmental and social rehabilitation as the planning stages of their
projects, he said. "But there are some particular areas of concern for large
gold operations in the United States, which have got quite a substantial
environmental legacy," he said. "I know that is worrying one or two
companies quite a lot in terms of the potentially very large liabilities
that will be crystallized on closure. There are going to be some companies
that are going to be sweating on this a bit." There have been major problems
with cyanide pollution at gold-mining operations in the western United
States. Many delegates at the conference stressed that governments must
become more involved in the issues of mine closings and Kuipers suggested
taxing metals consumption to help pay for the clean-up. Some said a global
closure fund should be created with contributions from industry, government
and institutions. But World Bank official Monika Weber Fahr, who noted that
the World Bank is the No. 1 source of mine-closing finances, warned that
knowing there is a back-up would encourage irresponsibility. "It should be
the polluter that should be paying," she said.
United Nations
14 May 2002
Internet:
http://www.johannesburgsummit.org/html/whats_new/feature_story.html
14 May, New York-In his first
major policy address on expectations for the World Summit on Sustainable
Development to be held this August, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi
Annan identified water and sanitation, energy, health, agriculture and
biodiversity as five key areas where concrete results can and must be
obtained. By concentrating on these five areas, the Secretary-General said,
in a speech delivered by his wife Nane Annan at the American Museum of
Natural History, the Summit could produce an ambitious but achievable
programme of practical steps to improve the lives of all human beings while
protecting the global environment. "These are five areas," he said, "in
which progress would offer all human beings a chance of achieving prosperity
that will not only last their own lifetime, but can be enjoyed by their
children and grandchildren too." The World Summit on Sustainable
Development, which will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 26
August to 4 September, will bring world leaders, citizen activists and
business representatives together to work on an agenda for ensuring that
planet Earth can sustain a decent life for all its inhabitants, present and
future. A fourth and final round of preparatory negotiations for the Summit
will take place in Bali, Indonesia, from 27 May to 7 June, and participants
in the process agree that the outcome of the Johannesburg Summit must
produce action and results. At the last preparatory committee meeting in New
York, however, there were so many proposals recommended by delegations that
an implementation document of 21 pages swelled to almost 150 pages by the
end of the meeting. A new 39-page Chairman's text has been prepared for the
start of the Bali meeting. The Secretary-General, in his speech, said he
sensed a need for greater clarity on what Johannesburg was all about, and
what it could achieve. From the broad smorgasbord of issues that will be
considered in Johannesburg, the Secretary-General said the five areas he
targeted were "areas in which progress is possible with the resources and
technologies at our disposal." The Secretary-General proposed the following
actions:
* Water- Provide access to at
least one billion people who lack clean drinking water and two billion
people who lack proper sanitation.
* Energy- Provide access to more
than two billion people who lack modern energy services; promote renewable
energy; reduce over-consumption; and ratify the Kyoto Protocol to address
climate change.
* Health- Address the effects of
toxic and hazardous materials; reduce air pollution, which kills three
million people each year, and lower the incidence of malaria and African
guinea worm, which are linked with polluted water and poor sanitation.
* Agricultural productivity- Work
to reverse land degradation, which affects about two-thirds of the world's
agricultural lands.
* Biodiversity and ecosystem
management- Reverse the processes that have destroyed about half of the
world's tropical rainforest and mangroves, and are threatening 70 per cent
of the world's coral reefs and decimating the world's fisheries.
The Johannesburg Summit is
expected to conclude with a political declaration, an implementation
programme agreed upon by Governments, and the launch of new voluntary
partnership initiatives by various groups to take action and achieve
results. The Secretary-General said that "the most creative agents of
change" may well be partnerships among governments, private businesses,
non-profit organizations, scholars and concerned citizens. Although
sustainable development was considered a "conceptual breakthrough" at the
1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, progress since then has been slower
than anticipated, and often, has been overshadowed in the policy-making
process by more immediate problems, such as conflicts, globalization, and
most recently, terrorism, the Secretary-General said. But he added that the
Johannesburg Summit offers humanity "a chance to restore the momentum that
had been felt so palpably after the Earth Summit." New efforts are needed,
he added, because the present model of development, which has brought
privilege and prosperity to about 20 per cent of humanity, has also exacted
a heavy price by degrading the planet and depleting its resources. Yet,
according to the Secretary-General, "at discussions on global finance and
the economy, the environment is still treated as an unwelcome guest."
High-consumption lifestyles continue to tax the earth's natural life-support
systems, research and development are under-funded and neglectful of the
problems of the poor, and developed countries "have not gone far enough," he
said, to fulfil either of the promises they made in Rio - to protect their
own environments and to help the developing world defeat poverty. The issue,
the Secretary-General said, is not environment versus development, or
ecology versus economy. "Contrary to popular belief," he said, "we can
integrate the two." "In Johannesburg, we have a chance to catch up," he
said, concluding. "Together, we will need to find our way towards a greater
sense of mutual responsibility. Together, we will need to build a new ethic
of global stewardship. Together, we can and must write a new and hopeful
chapter in natural-and human-history."
New Zealand Herald
14 May 2002
Internet:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/./latestnewsstory.cfm?storyID=1845135&thesection=news&thesubsection=world
LONDON - The general-secretary of
the Commonwealth called on Monday for immediate international action to help
the millions of people facing starvation in southern Africa because of
drought and failing crops. "I appeal to all Commonwealth countries and to
the international community as a whole to show solidarity and increase food
aid and other humanitarian relief to the Southern African region," Don
McKinnon said. There were already severe food shortages in Lesotho, Malawi,
Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The UN World Food
Programme has calculated that close to four million people face starvation
in the region due to causes ranging from erratic rainfall to failing
harvests. In Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe in particular, the harvests last
year were around one-third down on the previous year. In Zimbabwe the
problem has been exacerbated by a state-sponsored land grab that has stopped
many white-owned commercial farms from working and divided up fields into
small uneconomic parcels. The looming famine comes as leaders of the G8
countries -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the
United States -- prepare to gather for a summit in Canada next month to
discuss the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD). The initiative
is a plan for Africa drawn up by Africans, rather than imposed by
international institutions, aimed at lifting the whole continent out of the
cycle of poverty and debt. Earlier on Monday, international charity
Christian Aid appealed for the developed world to give Africa a new deal by
tilting the terms of trade in favour of the poverty-stricken and
strife-ridden continent. "Africa needs unfair trade. It needs trade
policies that explicitly and deliberately discriminate in its favour,"
Christian Aid director Daleep Mukarji wrote in an open letter to British
Prime Minister Tony Blair. Striking a chord that is likely to become the
refrain of the World Summit on Sustainable Development due to take place in
Johannesburg at the end of August, Christian Aid said it was the
responsibility of the rich north to help the poor south.
The Guardian
14 May 2002
Internet:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/globalwarming/story/0,7369,715127,00.html
It is wishful thinking to believe
that the United States will "trash its economy" in order to take action on
climate change and there is no chance of the Bush administration
reconsidering its position on the Kyoto protocol, America's senior climate
negotiator has said. Harlan Watson told a briefing in London yesterday that
the White House would not return to negotiations for the next review of
greenhouse gas reductions, due under the Kyoto protocol in 2005: "We want no
part of that ... The next time we take stock on climate change has been set
by the president at 2012." His remarks about the potential loss of millions
of American jobs and the uncertainties in the science of climate change
echoed points made in the last 10 years by the oil and coal lobbies. "The
US has a multi-trillion dollar infrastructure, with coal fired stations with
a 40- to 50-year lifespan," he said. "You cannot come in with a wrecking
ball and turn that around and replace it with new technologies. We just do
not have the capital to do that. You do not want to throw everything over at
once and trash your economy." He denied that the oil, coal and steel
lobbies were alone in resisting action and said concern had also been
expressed by trade unions, farmers and consumer groups worried about food
and fuel prices. Dr Watson, a physicist by training, also made it clear
that the US administration was in favour of a new generation of nuclear
reactors, which he said was a marked change in energy policy. He defended
the US decision to support the ousting of the climate scientist Robert
Watson as chairman of the UN independent panel on climate change (IPCC) in
favour of the Indian engineer and economist Rajendra Pachauri, saying it was
time for a developing country to be at the forefront of the organisation.
He added: "We need ideas on how to mitigate the effects of greenhouse gas
emissions at little cost, we need workable solutions, hence the need for
engineering and economics rather than more climate science." The US is
talking to developing countries about the need for economic growth using
better technologies, Dr Watson said, and these countries did not want to go
"the Kyoto route" for targets for greenhouse gas reductions and timetables
to achieve them. He said that President George Bush had not yet decided
whether he would attend the world summit on sustainable development, known
as the Rio+10 review conference, in South Africa this August.
Daily Telegraph
14 May 2002
Internet:http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$0IIKURIAAEA13QFIQMFCFFOAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2002/
05/14/nbali14.xml&sSheet=/news/2002/05/14/ixhome.html
TWO Cabinet ministers and more
than 40 civil servants, led by the keen diver and Deputy Prime Minister John
Prescott, are expected to attend a preparatory meeting for this summer's
Earth Summit in a compound of five-star hotels in Bali. The cost to the
taxpayer could be nearly £300,000. The Government says it needs such a large
delegation at the meeting later this month because there are crucial issues
to be resolved. But in between negotiating the future of the planet, Mr
Prescott, the Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett and other members of
the delegation will not find things too arduous. The Bali international
convention centre is in the Nusa Dua area, "a quiet, extremely luxurious
oasis for those looking for an experience not soon forgotten", according to
the Indonesian government's website. Rooms in the two Sheraton hotels in the
conference centre compound, already fully booked by the official organisers,
start at £107 a night for a single with no pool view to £1,264 for an
Imperial suite - the sort that the Foreign Office tends to book for the
Deputy Prime Minister. A step down from that, the type of suite that Mrs
Beckett, as a Cabinet minister, might expect is the Sultan at £478 a night.
The Nusa Dua development was planned some 25 years ago as a resort where
tourists could remain isolated and leave Bali and its unique culture to the
Balinese. The compound has its own 18-hole championship golf course and
large Western-style shopping area. The organisers helpfully remind delegates
that the facilities include beautiful beaches and - Mr Prescott's two
passions - diving and snorkelling. The meeting is the last before Tony Blair
and other world heads of government meet to discuss environmental issues at
the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in September, a
decade after the Earth Summit in Rio. Civil servants - three from Mr
Prescott's ministry, 10 from Defra and seven from the Department for
International Development - plus numerous Foreign Office minders, will be
staying for the duration of the meeting, from May 27 to June 7. Ministers
will attend the high-level ministerial segment from June 5 to 7. A spokesman
for Mrs Beckett said she would be taking the 14-hour flight out on June 3
and returning on June 8. However, a spokesman for Mr Prescott said he was
waiting until a meeting in South Africa this weekend before deciding whether
he was definitely going. "Normally departments do everything through the
Foreign Office. In this case they have been instructed not to book until the
Deputy Prime Minister has decided whether to attend." But the taxpayer will
be paying, even if not everyone decides to turn up. The Indonesian
government's website explains that ministers will have to pay for a minimum
of four nights and civil servants and others for at least seven. The
Government reacted with extreme caution to inquiries about the likely
accommodation ministers were booked into, perhaps fearing a repetition of
the controversy that surrounded Mr Prescott's fact-finding trip to the
Maldives when he was Environment Secretary. A spokesman for Defra said:
"There are serious issues to be hammered out in Bali, not least the
agreement over the plan of action for Johannesburg and the political
declaration. There were two choices of venue on offer from Indonesia -
Jakarta and Bali. Indonesia chose Bali because it had better facilities."
Derek Osborn from UNED UK, one of the bodies that have helped set the agenda
for the conference, said: "Some very important things are being attempted.
It is a very good thing that John Prescott is taking a keen interest and
lending his weight to make sure something comes out of this meeting." Harlan
Watson, senior climate change negotiator at the US Department of State, said
it was "unclear right now" whether President Bush would attend the South
Africa talks.
World Health Organisation Press
Release
13 May 2002
Internet:
http://www.who.int/inf/en/pr-2002WHA-01.html
Geneva -- Dr Gro Harlem
Brundtland today credited delegates from World Health Organization (WHO)
Member States for their efforts in moving health to the forefront of the
world agenda, and welcomed the real increase in funding earmarked for public
health worldwide. "We have triggered a change. Now we are taking it
forward," declared the WHO Director-General as she addressed representatives
of WHO's 191 Member States, including numerous Ministers of Health.
Delegates have converged in Geneva for the annual week-long WHO supreme
governing body meeting, the World Health Assembly. They will discuss and
debate a range of major international public health issues, and define
future policy for the Organization. The realization that health is a
prerequisite for economic growth, stability and peace has moved those
outside traditional circles of professional health workers to demand and
work towards improved health for the world's people. "Prime Ministers and
Presidents, rock singers and sports stars, business leaders, share our
position," said Dr Brundtland. Achievements include: the 99% reduction in
poliomyelitis cases; agreed targets and strategies to fight AIDS,
tuberculosis and malaria which are responsible for over 5 million deaths
annually; more widespread immunization against childhood illnesses with 8%
increases in some countries; unity of nations as they negotiate a
forthcoming framework convention on tobacco control and a greater emphasis
on mental illness as a major cause of suffering and disability.
THE WORLD LIVES DANGEROUSLY
Despite the encouraging new
attention of the international community toward health, daunting challenges
remain. There are worrying indications that changes in human behavior around
the world are leading to negative health impacts. This autumn, the World
Health Report, one of WHO's largest undertakings, will quantify some of the
most important risks to health and will assess the cost-effectiveness of
measures to reduce them. "The world is living dangerously: either because
it has little choice, or because it is making wrong choices about
consumption or activity," said Dr Brundtland. At one end of the risk factor
scale lie poverty, under nutrition, unsafe sex, unsafe water, poor
sanitation and hygiene, iron deficiency and indoor smoke from solid fuels.
These are among the ten leading causes of disease and are much more common
in the poorest countries and communities. At the other end of the risk
spectrum, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, strongly linked to
cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease, are also closely related to
excessive consumption of fatty, sugary and salty foods. Obesity is a serious
health risk. The consequences of tobacco use and excessive alcohol
consumption are deadly. These factors dominate the wealthier countries, but
their prevalence in developing communities is increasing, leaving poorer
countries to cope with the double burden of infectious and noncommunicable
diseases. Concerted and evidence-based action is urgently needed to reduce
these risks particularly -- among children and teenagers -- in order to
prevent disease. Dr Brundtland said she would be launching a new initiative
to promote healthy environments for children at the World Summit for
Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in September. Moreover, WHO will
reinvigorate its work on diet, food safety and nutrition. Chaired by
Ministers of Health, four parallel roundtables will take place within the
Assembly tomorrow to discuss risks to health. They will focus on monitoring,
communicating and reducing these risks.
INTENSIFIED ACTION REQUIRED ON
DISEASES OF THE POOR
The new global commitment to
health has been translated into concrete progress: additional resources and
mechanisms to move new funds quickly; effective strategies to achieve
precise goals in defined time limits; and mobilization and coordination of a
variety of partners. Particular emphasis has been on three diseases
associated with poverty -- HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. New HIV/AIDS
programs, applicable even in resource-poor settings, use an integral
approach, combining prevention, diagnostics, treatment and care. Great
strides have been made in making medicines accessible to a much larger
number of patients than previously. These encouraging developments, however,
are just a start. "We need continued reduction in prices of medicines and
other commodities, and expansion of quality services to the millions in
need. We must scale up our effort even if the struggle seems beset with
political and institutional minefields," urged Dr Brundtland. She said that
fully planned projects are ready to start within weeks if more money starts
to flow, and that the absorption capacity of countries far outstrips the
available funds.
HEALTH SYSTEMS NEED TO BE
IMPROVED
Another great challenge is the
creation of better health systems that are fairly and sufficiently financed
and respond to needs and expectations. Dr Brundtland announced the
establishment of two new initiatives: one provides guidance on health care
financing in different settings; the other will improve human resources in
national health systems, particularly in the poorly financed ones, which
suffer as a result of relentless recruitment of health workers to places
where the pay is better. WHO is focusing increasingly on individual
countries, both in terms of assisting the development of national capacity,
as well as improving WHO country teams. In the coming years WHO will give
added emphasis to taking exceptional action for health in emergency and
crisis situations throughout the world. This involves assembling information
on health situations and responses, working in synergy with all concerned
partners and improving access to essential health commodities, equipment and
personnel. WHO continues to assist national authorities in reconstruction of
the health sector in Afghanistan, and is currently working to get more
medical supplies into the Palestinian territories where the health systems
urgently need to begin functioning again. "Let me add the voice of public
health in support of all who are urging all parties in the current [Middle
East] conflict to move towards peace and away from confrontation," declared
Dr Brundtland.
The full text of the Address by
Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General, to the Fifty-fifth World Health
Assembly, Geneva, 13 May 2002 is available at:
http://www.who.int/director-general/
The full agenda and documentation
for the current Assembly can be found at:
http://www.who.int/gb/
BBC via Financial Times
13 May 2002
Internet:
http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=020513005822&query=World+Summit+on+Sustainable+Development
Berlin: According to Federal
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Social Democratic Party of Germany [SPD],
Germany is set to fight for more "global justice". This includes stepping up
assistance for developing countries and opening the markets of the
industrialized nations to Third World products. Global justice would become
a "question of survival" in the 21st century, Schroeder said at a conference
of the Council of Sustained Development in Berlin. Without justice there
will be no global security, the chancellor added. The Council of Sustained
Development was set up a year ago to advise the federal government on its
programme for sustainability. Germany plans to present its national
sustainability strategy at the environment summit in Johannesburg, South
Africa, due to be held in August, 10 years after the international
environment protection conference of Rio de Janeiro. Schroeder demanded that
the Johannesburg conference adopt "an action programme that can be
implemented" and give a "starting signal for a sustained energy supply". The
chancellor pointed out that some 2bn people lived without energy supply
today. Developing countries had a particular responsibility in this
connection since such programmes could also help create jobs in these
countries, he said. Schroeder noted that he could understand the fears of
the so-called opponents to globalization, since disproportionate economic
development could produce social conflicts. Therefore, it was important to
give globalization a "human direction" with an "ecological and social
structure". It is up to politics to prevent a division into winners and
losers of globalization - in Germany and on an international scale, he said.
That is why Germany supports the initiative to stock up the funds for global
environmental protection, which will involve an additional 2.7bn dollars for
the developing countries in the coming years. Based on the resolutions of
the recent EU summit in Barcelona, the EU will stock up funds for
development cooperation by 11bn euro by the year 2006, Schroeder concluded.
Reuters
13 May 2002
Internet:
http://www.reuters.co.uk/news_article.jhtml;jsessionid=EMHCNNEPV0F3SCRBAEZSFFAKEEATIIWD?type=topnews&StoryID=953826
LONDON (Reuters) - The
general-secretary of the Commonwealth has called for immediate international
action to help the millions of people facing starvation in southern Africa
because of drought and failing crops. "I appeal to all Commonwealth
countries and to the international community as a whole to show solidarity
and increase food aid and other humanitarian relief to the Southern African
region," Don McKinnon said on Monday. The Commonwealth groups 54 mainly
former British colonies. It said there were already severe food shortages in
Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The
U.N. World Food Programme has calculated that close to four million people
face starvation in the region due to causes ranging from erratic rainfall to
failing harvests. In Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe in particular, the harvests
last year were around one-third down on the previous year. In Zimbabwe the
problem has been exacerbated by a state-sponsored land grab that has stopped
many white-owned commercial farms from working and divided up fields into
small uneconomic parcels. The looming famine comes as leaders of the G8
countries -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the
United States -- prepare to gather for a summit in Canada next month to
discuss the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD). The initiative
is a plan for Africa drawn up by Africans, rather than imposed by
international institutions, aimed at lifting the whole continent out of the
cycle of poverty and debt. Earlier on Monday, international charity
Christian Aid appealed for the developed world to give Africa a new deal by
tilting the terms of trade in favour of the poverty-stricken and
strife-ridden continent. "Africa needs unfair trade. It needs trade policies
that explicitly and deliberately discriminate in its favour," Christian Aid
director Daleep Mukarji wrote in an open letter to Prime Minister Tony
Blair. Striking a chord that is likely to become the refrain of the World
Summit on Sustainable Development due to take place in Johannesburg at the
end of August, Christian Aid said it was the responsibility of the rich
north to help the poor south.
Washington File
13 May 2002
Internet:
