An Appeal for a Different Globalisation
Figaro Magazine, January 27, 2002
2002 will inevitably be a year of reflection; those of us who are concerned
for the future of tis planet and its inhabitants must do all we can to
ensure that it is also a year of action and marks the end of a period
of apathy and shortsightedness. It is for this reason that Green Cross
International and a host of other organisations, with the support of the
Government of France and the City of Lyon, are holding the Earth Dialogues
in Lyon from 21-23 February 2002, to address, both intellectually and
pragmatically, the most critical problems facing society today.
During and just after the Earth Summit on Environment and Development
held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, I could sense an overwhelming air of enthusiasm
and hope for the future. It was a time of optimism and, in retrospect,
innocence, as everyone celebrated the end of the Cold War. As the
ten year review of the Rio Declaration and the implementation of “Agenda
21” approaches, the action plan to implement the Sustainable Development,
we are instead surrounded by cynicism and, for many, despair. This
is hardly surprising considering that pressure on natural resources has
increased, poverty is deepening in developing and transition countries,
human security is diminishing, violent conflicts continue, and the environment
continues to deteriorate.
And this does not even begin to take into account the new realities that
we face in 2002. Most of these recent developments are tied to the
phenomena of Globalisation; the fact that we now live in a highly interconnected
world where trade, pollution, crime, disease and all other kinds of influence
know no borders. Globalisation has brought enormous benefits to
some, disaster to others, and has completely bypassed many. It has
generated even greater gaps between the haves and the have-nots: those
who have access to information, technology and natural resources, and
those who have no influence at all over the factors that affect their
livelihoods. Double standards and the increasingly unfettered power
of large multinational companies have served to exacerbate this trend.
Instead of the “sustainable development” which the world signed
up to in Rio we see unsustainable development gained largely on the backs
of the world’s poor and at the expense of the environment.
So, what has gone wrong? What is missing? Even in 1992, many of
us realised that all the good will and promises of the Rio Summit would
amount to nothing unless accompanied by two things: a serious investigation
into the universal values and codes of ethics behind the actions called
for in Agenda 21, and a great deal of money. Along with my fellow
Earth Dialogue co-convenor, Maurice Strong, the champion of the Rio Earth
Summit, and thousands of others, I have been part of a global dialogue
to create an integrated ethical framework for sustainable development
which resulted in the Earth Charter released in 2000. With this
text we sought to fill an important gap. Since the very emergence
of human civilisation, communities everywhere have developed and put into
practice moral codes of conduct to govern the way they treat one another.
Violators of these codes are brought to justice and often required to
compensate the victims of their actions. After the horrors of the
World Wars, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was formulated as
a means of protecting the people of the world from harm. Now the
planet itself is in danger, and many of the basic ethical principles which
should protect it are not respected, even though millions of people suffer
as a result, and violators go unpunished.
One important area where the world has fallen sadly short of the Rio promises
is freshwater. So simple, so beautiful in its different natural
forms, and so essential, water is a symbol in many religions and cultures
for purification and replenishment, and is regarded as something to rejoice
over and cherish. It should be regarded as a source of universal
shame that three million children will die, and millions more become blind,
this year as a result of preventable water-borne diseases; that over one
billion people do not have access to safe drinking water; that almost
three billion do not have the means for adequate sanitation; and that
we continue to thoughtlessly pollute and exploit natural sources of freshwater
throughout the world. Water is the single most important ingredient for
development and stability. Without access to basic water supplies
one is left with ill-health, poverty, environmental degradation and even
conflict - all of which in turn lead to greater water stress. But good
governance, though essential, is not enough. The United Nations has made
a Millennium Pledge to reduce by half the number of people in the world
without access to improved water and sanitation services by 2015; achieving
this will take an estimated US$ 23 billion per year. Access to an
adequate supply of good quality water for basic human needs is a universal
human right, and it is the responsibility of everyone that this pledge
be kept.
This will be difficult considering that levels of Official Development
Assistance (ODA) reached a twenty year low point of $53.1billion in 2000.
At the Earth Summit, leaders of developed countries vowed to increase
their ODA to 0.7% of their GNP. Only five nations have made good
on that promise (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, The Netherlands and Luxembourg),
while the others have either decreased or frozen their contributions.
France, which gave 0.33% of its GNP in 2000, lies below the already pitiful
OECD average of 0.39%, and continues to decrease this figure. In
this symbolic year of national elections and international summits, the
Monterrey Conference on the Financing for Development and the World Summit
on Sustainable Development, the people of France should insist that this
trend be reversed and that their nation live up to its global responsibilities.
For the responsibilities of the North are considerable. While insisting
that developing nations pay their crippling overseas debts, rich nations
should not forget the incalculable ecological debts which they are accruing
through over-consumption, particularly the already evident climatic changes
directly caused by irresponsible energy policies. Surely it is too
much to ask that the developing countries not only honour their own debts,
but also bear the brunt of the over-consumption of the rich.
We need to find a way to share the benefits and burdens of globalization,
and identify the principles, actions and finances needed to ensure
that the current patterns of consumption and production which are threatening
the future of the planet are reversed. We would be naive to imagine
that our prosperity can continue, or that we can achieve any degree of
global security, without meeting these goals. On of the most important
lessons of the terrorist attacks of September 11 is that we are all living
in one world, and no one can afford to ignore the problems of others,
no matter how far away. Sustainable development is not a new term
for charity, or environmentalism, it is the responsibility and in the
interest of all to make its achievement a top priority. Sustainable solutions
for the future of the Planet will be find if everybody accept to work
with others without exclusion, I warmly invite you to join me in
Lyon on February 21, 2002.
Mikhail Gorbachev
President of Green Cross International
|
 |
