Protests at Johannesburg Earth Summit; Bush called 'biggest obstacle'
(ENS) -At least 105 presidents and prime ministers, along with anestimated 65,000 government representatives, NGOs and businessleaders, attended the world summit on sustainable development inJohannesburg, South Africa in late August and early September.But activists staged protests at a variety of sites to protest whatthey saw as a lack of positive action. A Greenpeace spokesman said,"The Earth Summit has failed to take action against dirty energypolicies which are fueling climate change." Another spokespersonsaid, "The Earth Summit was on the brink of bringing corporations likeShell and BP to task, by making them accountable for the damage theydo. But that hope has been being undermined. Once again governmentsare caving in and allowing company profits to dictate governmentpolicy."
Throughout the world conference, held on the tenth anniversary of asimilar conference in Rio de Janeiro, governments failed to agree ontargets for increasing production of renewable energy, due in part topressure from the US and energy industry lobbyists. US opposition alsoundermined an early agreement to develop an intergovernmentalframework that would make corporations accountable for their actionsand pollution. "Big business and polluting governments like the UShave joined forces in Johannesburg once again to deny people the rightto clean and safe energy," said Greenpeace. "They are also trying toundermine any attempts to make corporations accountable for thedevastation they bring not just to the climate but also to localcommunities."
"Esso, Shell and BP are sending our climate up in smoke," said KarstenSmid, a climate expert with Greenpeace. "At the Earth Summit, the USand Saudi Arabia joined hands with the oil lobby to prevent greatersupport for renewable energy forms. Esso and its parent companyExxonMobil, in particular, are sabotaging climate protection."
In an August 2 letter to Bush, obtained by Greenpeace, oil lobbyistspaid by ExxonMobil urged Bush not to attend the World Summit, andapplauded his opposition to signing new international environmentaltreaties. "The least important global environmental issue is potentialglobal warming, and we hope that your negotiators at Johannesburg cankeep it off the table," the letter reportedly stated.
Summit attendees did pledge to take steps to increase energyefficiency, boost the use of renewable energy, and begin to phase outsubsidies for fossil fuels, "where appropriate," but for many thosepledges were not enough. Outside the final plenary session, dozens ofprotesters wore stickers that said "No More Shameful Summits," andrefused to be moved until South African police herded them into agroup and propelled them out of the public square. "Governments failedto do the job," said Greenpeace climate policy director Steve Sawyer."Now it's up to all of us."
The summit did make some commitments to improve the lives of peopleliving in poverty and to reverse the degradation of the globalenvironment. Nations agreed on targets to reduce the proportion ofpeople lacking access to clean water or proper sanitation, to restoredepleted fisheries, to preserve biodiversity, and to phase out toxicchemicals. For the first time countries committed to increasing theuse of renewable energy "with a sense of urgency."
Green Cross International President Mikhail Gorbachev was joined byother Nobel Peace Laureates in calling for rapid action to stem theearth's environmental degradation and place the whole of humanity onthe path to sustainable development. The International Union ofStudents, the International Youth and Student Movement for the UN andthe South African Youth Council said "the rich and powerful haveblocked the road to sustainable development and generated meagerresults from this summit. We are outraged by one government inparticular, the US, and its attempts to undermine and sabotageagreements at this summit."
"The Bush administration is the biggest obstacle to the success of theWorld Summit on Sustainable Development," said Leslie Fields, directorof International Programs for Friends of the Earth US, following thespeech of US Secretary of State Colin Powell to the plenary session ofworld leaders. Powell was booed and jeered when he defendedgenetically modified food aid to starving countries of southernAfrica, and when he said the US is committed to combating globalwarming.
Philip Clapp, president of the Washington, DC-based NationalEnvironmental Trust said, "Worst of all, on climate change it's a hugestep backward. The Bush administration formed its own axis withVenezuela and OPEC nations - its own axis of oil." Clapp said the Bushadministration blocked European Union-supported proposals to increasethe percentage of energy production from renewable sources to 15percent by 2015. "Utilities are the source of 40 percent of America'sglobal warming pollution. We will not begin to cut those emissionsunless utility companies begin to invest seriously in renewable energyresources. They have failed to make those investments for the pastdecade, and our global warming emissions have risen by over 13percent," said Clapp.
South African President Thabo Mbeki said the world is "in crisis, aworld in which our resolve to bequeath to future generations asustainable and viable future has been found wanting....We see a worldthat is ailing from poverty, inequality and environmental degradation,despite the agreements at the Rio Earth Summit.... This is a world inwhich a rich minority enjoys unprecedented levels of consumption,comfort and prosperity, while the poor majority endures dailyhardship, suffering and dehumanization."
