Ref. GCI-WSSD_19.[1].02

(document in word format)

1. General impression
   
   The World Summit on Sustainable Development was an opportunity not fully taken advantage of by the global community. The optimists have found some reasons for satisfaction and pessimists have found many reasons for disappointment. The press and media covered the Summit with scepticism and with limited interest.
   
   Global governance is in crisis and such UN Summits have reached their limits of efficiency. Unfortunately no alternatives emerged during the Summit in order to replace them.
   
   The world is not Manichean, and no one country should be blamed. Some media and leaders tried to simplify matters and blame the US. This is not an accurate assessment; the reality is more complex. At times, the US found allies with fossil fuel energy producers against the EU and NGOs on the question of Climate Change; at other times, the US and EU created a coalition on the question of farm subsidies or debt relief.
   
   
2. Positive outputs of WSSD
   
   20,000 delegates from 191 countries, 110 heads of State or Government, gathered during 10 days for a huge melting pot and impressive global brainstorming.
   
   The Summit was the opportunity to assess the environmental, social and economical situation of the world, ten years after the Rio Summit on Environment and Development. Most delegates recognised that not enough has been done since 1992 and the world is running on an unsustainable treadmill.
   
   The world is more and more complex and no single country or leader can impose its view and vision for the world, and alternatives are possible. The development is plural and diverse.
   
   Companies and corporations generally want to play their role and be partners. New, strong and sometimes unexpected partnerships were created between NGOs, the Private sector and Governments.
   
   The Millennium UN targets were confirmed in the Political Declaration (Doc 1). Water issues are at the top of world priorities and the provision of drinking water and sanitation to everybody is recognized as an essential way to reduce poverty worldwide: this is the one unambiguous success in the summit's plan of action. Leaders agreed to halve by 2015 the number of people – 2.4 billion – without basic sanitation, after an isolated United States dropped dogged opposition to setting the target. If implemented, this could do much to reduce the 2 million deaths a year, mainly of children, caused by drinking contaminated water. In fact, the world had already agreed at an earlier summit to cut by half the number of people without safe drinking water. 
   
   Although water issues are cited as the major achievement of the Summit, an important – and very deliberate – omission is the question of international watercourses.  There is no mention at all of the need for cooperative management and conflict resolution mechanisms on the world’s 260 international river basins, where 40% of world population lives.  This is another backward step from Rio, which explicitly refers to the need for transboundary water management.  While the Summit confirmed access to water as a global priority, there was a serious lack of political will on the part of a handful of important developing states to make a commitment to jointly managing this essential resource.
   
   Issues such as Sustainable Development, protection of the environment, eradication of poverty, climate change can no longer be forgotten as part of the global agenda.
   
   The Earth Charter was mentioned in the draft Political Declaration that was released on the morning of Monday, September 2nd.  The exact wording read as follows:  “We note the relevance of the challenges posed in the Earth Charter.”  This draft, however, underwent two subsequent revisions and the final text that was agreed on the evening of Wednesday, September 4th, no longer contained the reference.  That mention was made at all of the Earth Charter was a victory in itself and a step towards recognizing an ethical framework for decision-making in regard to sustainable development in the international arena. Reference to the Earth Charter initiative was made by 10 to 15 countries and by some Heads of State. Some Heads of State delivered strong and visionary speeches such as Chirac from France, Fox from Mexico, and others.
   
   
3. Negative or ambivalent outputs of WSSD
   
   Half of expected delegates came to Johannesburg, which proves the limited interest of the Summit.
   
   The Political Declaration is the result of tough negotiations between ??? – this was difficult to know.  The Summit on the whole was a much less transparent process and comprised of much more closed deliberations than in Bali or the previous prepcoms, as only plenary sessions were open to NGOs and other major groups.  The last draft of the Political Declaration published on September 3 in the Star, a major Johannesburg newspaper, was very acceptable from our point of view. The final version of the Political Declaration adopted without enthusiasm in the plenary session on September 4 was so different that many delegates, NGOs and others were really disappointed. References to “Global Apartheid”, the Earth Charter and renewable energy targets were deleted.
   
   3.1.  Energy
   The result of negotiations on energy was the big disappointment of the summit. The US and other OPEC countries would not endorse a target for renewable energy. They killed off a Brazilian proposal backed by the rest of Latin America and other developing and developed countries to quadruple the world's use of clean energy to 1 per cent by 2010. They even sabotaged a much more modest EU plan for a 1 per cent increase over the decade. The summit did at least discuss energy; the US and OPEC had stopped previous meetings from addressing it.
   
   3.2.  Agriculture and fishing
   The summit agreed that the Global Environment Facility, the world's main funding mechanism for global environmental problems, should be allowed to finance the fight against desertification which threatens one third of the world's land area. It undertook to rebuild fish stocks "where possible" by 2015, but critics believe this may undermine existing agreements. It refused to phase out agricultural subsidies or to support organic and fair trade products, and left the door open for GM crops.
   
   3.3.  Biodiversity
   The plan of implementation referred to "the achievement by 2010 of a significant reduction in the current rate of loss of biological diversity". But this wording is much weaker than an undertaking "to stop and reverse the current alarming biodiversity loss" which the world's governments agreed only last April. The summit took a step backwards – and no one expects anything much to be done anyway.
   
   3.4.  Over-consumption
   The summit agreed a weaker text than expected, promising to "encourage and promote" a 10-year programme to combat over-consumption in rich countries, rather than to actually set it up. The EU pressed for action, but the US, Canada, Australia and Japan vigorously resisted. Proposals to support labelling of environmentally friendly goods were defeated. But the action plan does say that countries must develop better policies on consumption and production.
   
   3.5.  Corporate accountability
   Surprising headway was made, mainly due to pressure groups, who forced it on to the agenda. Governments accepted that binding rules could be developed to govern the behaviour of multinational companies. The US resisted tooth and claw, and tried various ploys to exempt itself, even after the matter was settled. But the plan of action stops short of setting a timetable for the regulations, or even firmly saying that they should be introduced.
   
   3.6.  Ethics and Values
   Overall, Ethics and values issues were not discussed enough during the negotiations of the Plan of Implementation (Doc 2). There is a general recognition of ethics in the Summit’s Plan of Implementation, which appears in paragraph 5 as follows: “we acknowledge the importance of ethics for sustainable development, and therefore we emphasize the need to consider ethics in the implementation of Agenda 21.”  This citation of ethics is significant, however, since it builds on the references to ethical considerations in Agenda 21, which were mainly limited to a national context.
   
   3.7.  Type II Initiatives
   The Type II Initiatives, partnerships between NGOs-Private Sector-Governments-International Institutions elaborated to take practical action to address the crises, were not as successful as expected (from UN and US point of view).  Currently there are just over 221 partnerships worth $235 million. What they will achieve remains to be seen, but they mark a new development for the UN in involving the rest of society in its affairs. Green Cross is participating in three partnerships following its philosophy to facilitate and encourage all kinds of cooperation.
   
   
4. Green Cross involvement and results
   
   Green Cross’ delegation was impressive, and at the beginning of the second week Green Cross was represented by 23 individuals. Delegates came from the US (3), Cote d’Ivoire (2), Senegal (1), GCI (6), Burkina Faso (3), Jordan (1), Argentina (1), Swaziland (3), Denmark (1), and South Africa (2). Unfortunately, Nathalie Gysi from GC Switzerland had to cancel her trip at the last minute.
   
   President Gorbachev cancelled his trip to Reunion Island and Johannesburg. This decision for medical reasons drastically changed our agenda and our strategy of communication.  We tried to salvage as much as possible, but certainly the results of the Summit would have been different with President Gorbachev’s participation.
   
   GC Delegates were active during the official negotiations in the conference centre but also in the Water Dome, Ubuntu Village and Global Civil Society Forum.
   
   We pushed our agenda defined during the preparatory phase of the WSSD, that is to say, the Earth Charter, Water, Energy and Environmental Education, Environmental Legacy of Wars and Conflicts.
   
   4.1.  Earth Charter
   GC participated in different events organized with Earth Council, such as the launching of the Educating for Sustainable Living with the Earth Charter partnership (Doc 3).
   
   Green Cross is a partner of this initiative and all GCNOs are encouraged to take part in it. We expect that those in charge of the Environmental Education program of GCI and Earth Charter Youth contest will react favourably to it.
   
   Steven Rockefeller’s memorandum summarises the Earth Charter adventure during the WSSD (Doc 4).
   
   4.2.  Water Issues
   GC was very active on these issues. We were present in the WaterDome in two places. The first was in the middle of the exhibition in the African village, where we presented mainly our activities on Water for Peace (Doc 5) and practical water-related projects, for example in Swaziland and the Sacred Forests in Côte d’Ivoire. The second was with the International Secretariat for Water (ISW) in “Convergence” where we presented the project of the World Assembly of Wisdom for Water, see press release (Doc 6).
   
   In NASREC, the Global Civil Society Forum, GC again with ISW presented its activities at the Water Bridges site.
   
   On September 3, Alexander Likhotal, representing GC and President Gorbachev, launched the day on Water and Globalisation (Doc 7). At the end of the same day, GC was officially recognized as a partner of the EU Water Initiative especially for the African Transboundary Rivers questions (Doc 8), and Green Cross were invited to be the civil society representatives at the high level launch of the Initiative. Our privileged position with the EU for this initiative gives us some hope to develop our collaboration in other regions, especially in CIS. This depends on the reaction of GCNOs in the region.
   
   Also on 3 September, GC and UNESCO held a well-attended side event on the PCCP-Water for Peace project.  GC Burkina Faso, Argentina, Jordan and Okavango projects were presented, along with contributions from international experts on transboundary water issues.
   
   GC was confirmed as the organisers, along with UNESCO, of the Water for Peace Theme during the Third World Water Forum in Kyoto in March 2003 (Doc 9).
   
   On August 29, with our partners ISW and Magreb Alliance for Water, we launched the process of the World Assembly of Wisdom for Water and the gathering of the first Assembly is planned for March 2002 during the Third World Water Forum (Doc 10).
   
   As announced before and confirmed in Johannesburg, GCI and UNESCO are co-organising a conference entitled “from Conflict to Co-operation in International Water Resources Management: Challenges and Opportunities” on November 20-22, 2002 in Delft (Doc 11).
   
   Jordan and Israel announced a joint project to save the Dead Sea, the Red – Dead Sea Canal. During the presentation, Green Cross confirmed its interest in this project and our offer of participation was welcomed both by Jordanian and Israeli ministers (Doc 12).
    
   4.3.  Environmental Legacy of Wars and Conflicts
   The issue of environmental consequences of Wars and Conflicts was not at the top of the agenda of Johannesburg, or even the question of peace and Sustainable Development. Nevertheless, in pursuing our permanent effort to include this issue in the global agenda, we participated in the launching of the new initiative “Integrated Approach to Prevention, Preparedness for and Response to Environmental Emergencies in support of Sustainable Development” (Doc 13) lead by the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Geneva. This partnership offers many opportunities for GC and we urge the Steering Committee of GCI Legacy Program to consider this proposal very seriously.
   
   4.4.  Energy Efficiency
   Global Green US took a leading position on the question of energy. Instead of fighting directly the Bush administration on the Kyoto protocol ratification, GGUS proposed the creation of a Solar Venture Fund of $50 billion fed by the equivalent of the decrease of fossil energies subsidies (Doc 14).
   
   4.5.  Other GCI Events
   On August 30 – 31, Alexander Likhotal representing Mikhail Gorbachev on Reunion Island, a French overseas territory in the Indian Ocean, signed an agreement of cooperation with the Region in which GC committed to organise a Regional Earth Dialogues in 2003 and the Reunion Region will financially support the Earth Dialogues and the creation of a Regional GC branch.
   
   On September 3, in the absence of President Gorbachev, Rigoberta Menchu Tum accepted to launch the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Johannesburg Declaration (Doc 15 & 15 bis) in the presence of Jean-Michel Cousteau and representatives of the Mayors of Lyon, Ouagadougou, and Curitiba. By this Declaration, the Nobel Peace Laureates urged the Heads of State and Governments to fulfil their political responsibilities for the implementation of Sustainable Development. Two new mayors have now joined this Declaration, the Mayors of Cape Town and of London.
   
   Bertrand Charrier participated at the Workshop on Clean air and Clean Water organized by the Parliamentarians for Global Action, with Margaret Catley-Carlson, Chair of Global Water Partnership, by presenting the GC position and proposition Global Imperatives to Tackle Water Crisis (Doc 16)
   
   On September 1, Bertrand Charrier took the place of President Gorbachev to give a keynote address (Doc 17) at the IUCN seminar on Water, Responsibility and Security.  The panel also included Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and a Vice President of the World Bank.
   
   A new version of the GCI Profile was edited and distributed (Doc 18).
   
   The new book of President Gorbachev was launched on August 26 in France and presented in Johannesburg. Editors have been found in The Netherlands, Germany, Spain and are currently being researched for the US, Russia, and Italy (Doc 19).
   
   
5. What Green Cross should do Now
   
   The long list of good and productive results and contacts made during the WSSD encourages us to pursue our activities in the selected domains by the decision bodies of Green Cross, according to the general mission of Green Cross recently clarified by the Mission Task Force.
   
   It is important that all GCNOs study carefully the outputs of the WSSD and GC achievements in order to prepare for the General Assembly, which will take place at the beginning of 2003.
   
   GCI Geneva would like to facilitate the exchanges of views and visions between all GCNOs and new partners.
   
   For its part, GCI Geneva will continue to facilitate and encourage the development of the main GCI programs on water, the Earth Charter and environmental education, energy and resources efficiency, environmental consequences of wars and conflicts; the creation and consolidation of new GCNOs (Brazil, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Denmark, UK, Spain); and worldwide communication (President Gorbachev’s book, the Peace Nobel Prize Declaration).
   
   
6. Documents
   
   6.1.  Official documents
   Doc 1: WSSD Political Declaration
   Doc 2: Plan of Implementation (pdf - word)
   
   6.2.  Earth Charter
   Doc 3: Earth Charter Partnership
   Doc 4: Steven Rockefeller’s Memo on the Earth Charter
   
   6.3.  Water
   Doc 5: Water for Peace Summary (pdf)
   Doc 6: Press Release on the World Assembly of Wisdom for Water
   Doc 7: Gorbachev’s speech at the WaterDome read by Alexander Likhotal
   Doc 8: European Union Water Initiative: Water for Life (word)
   Doc 9: Third World Water Form: Kyoto March 2003
   Doc 10: World Assembly of Sages for Water (pdf)
   Doc 11: Conflict to Co-operation: UNESCO – GCI Conference Delft 20-21 November 2002 (pdf)
   Doc 12: Red-Dead Sea Partnership
   
   6.4.  Environmental Legacy of Wars and Conflicts
   Doc 13: Integrated Approach to Prevention, Preparedness for and Response to Environmental Emergencies in support of Sustainable Development
   
   6.5.  Energy
   Doc 14: Press release on Solar Energy Fund of $50 billion
   
   6.6.  Other documents
   Doc 15 & 15 bis:  Peace Nobel Prize Laureates Johannesburg Declaration
   Doc 16: Global Imperatives to Tackle Water Crisis by B. Charrier
   Doc 17: Security and Responsibility for Transboundary Water Management By Mikhail Gorbachev
   Doc 18: Green Cross Up-dated information
   Doc 19: Gorbachev’s Book cover page and Press release
   
   7.     Web Sites to visit
   Political Declaration: http://www.johannesburgsummit.org/html/documents/summit_docs/0409_l6rev2_pol_decl.pdf
   Third World Water Forum: http://www.worldwaterforum.org/
   PCCP: http://www.unesco.org/water/wwap/pccp/