South Africa’s Agenda for the World Summit

Irma Venter writing in a recent edition of Engineering News stated that South Africa’s agenda for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) will have the eradication of poverty as its main theme. To this end the Republic hopes to be instrumental in implementing and reviewing several global agreements.

The WSSD will be held in Johannesburg from 26 August to 4 September with the Sandton Convention Centre as the main centre of activity. Satellite conferences will be held at other venues in Sandton and Midrand.

While the formal agenda for the WSSD will be determined at Bali in June, the South African Department of Environmental Affairs & Tourism has said that civil society and the government has already agreed that the following points should be addressed:

• the development of a global partnership to combat poverty and inequality;
• the development of a plan of action to tackle the poverty and development targets set out in the United National Millennium Declaration and also mobilising support and commitment for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD);
• the re-organisation of international environmental legislation and policies into a more efficient and effective system;
• the establishment of financing methods for sustainable development, especially for the developing world;
• the linking of environmental and developmental issues to the trade debate;
• greater global access to energy for sustainable development and the promotion of cleaner production methods that are renewable and energy efficient;
• the consolidation of the Kyoto Protocol and a global agreement on air pollution;
• a global plan of action on conservation, and the protection of biodiversity, in particular food security;
• the consolidation and implementation of the Biosafety protocol, intellectual property rights agreements and bio-prospecting;
• the recognition of the threat of HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases to sustainable development and the development of a global plan of action;
• a broader global policy on waste minimisation and recycling;
• a global policy on shared water resources, water-resource management, access to water services and sanitation;
• the integration and consolidation of regional seas and coastal agreements covering commercial and protection issues;
• an extension of existing multilateral environmental agreements on climate change, the ozone layer, etc to a more extensive agreement on the protection of the atmosphere, air pollution and emission standards;
• a global commitment for a plan of action to combat desertification and land degradation;
• a global plan of action to deal with the loss of the world’s forests and associated biodiversity.

It can be expected that South Africa’s agenda for the WSSD as well as the agenda’s of other developing countries will be greatly different from those of the developed world. For example, in the 1992 Rio Earth Summit the developed world focused on pollution, acid rain and ozone depletion, overproduction of crops, landscape destruction caused by road-building, climate change, population stagnation, crime and drug abuse and loss of biodiversity. In contrast, the developing world focused on land degradation, loss of biomass, water quantity and access, landscape destruction caused by mining, desertification, rapid population growth, conflicts and civil strife and loss of biodiversity.

In 1992 it was agreed the developed countries would contribute 0.7% of gross domestic product to official development assistance for implementation by the developing world. However by 197 it was clear that the majority of developed countries had not honoured their commitment. In 2002 the situation is no better.

Since the Rio Earth Summit ten years ago, the developing world has lost its capacity to engage the developed world. South Africa hopes to rectify this situation at the WSSD by promoting the concept of “a global partnership” to ensure increased participation between the richer Northern Hemisphere and the poorer Southern Hemisphere countries.