A decade after Rio

A decade has passed since world leaders met in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro and pledged to save the earth and humankind through sustainable development. At that time the conference was widely hailed as a landmark achievement in international efforts to reshape the global economy in order to make humankind's economic efforts less harmful and more socially equitable, which is the essence of the meaning of sustainable development.

At present, however, only ten years later, that pledge rings hollow. The integration of environmental considerations into development efforts has not come about. The world's environment continues to deteriorate as global critical water shortages, global warming, loss of the earth's biodiversity and the use of hazardous technologies continue to threaten wide parts of our world.

Greenhouse gasses continue to poison the atmosphere in increasing amounts with the gloomy prospect of rising even further following the United States' withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol. At the same time, unsustainable consumption continues and disparities in incomes in developed and developing countries are widening. The flow of financial aid has decreased rather than increased as promised in Rio a decade ago.

The fault for all this, however, must not be sought in the concept of sustainable development itself, but rather in the fact that it was not given the chance to be adequately implemented. The concept of sustainable development was overridden by the globalization of trade with the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in January 1995. The globalization was then fostered by unprecedented liberalization in financial services. In short, the globalization of trade and services with the full support of the developed countries and their multinational companies is now without doubt running away as the winner in this unequal race.

All this has happened because the Rio Summit failed to regulate businesses, the financial institutions and multinational corporations in its agenda, which is known as Agenda 21. As this agenda is a non-binding agreement, there is no strong institution that can enforce its implementation. This is the reason behind the proposal to establish a World Environmental Organization to bring all multilateral environmental agreements under an umbrella framework. Nevertheless, substance and goals should precede form.

The relationship between the UN systems under which sustainable development endeavors are currently handled with the Bretton Woods institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund as well as the World Trade Organization must be clarified, with sustainable development as the overriding objective.

The upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg from late August through early September should be a good place for the world's leaders to seek a proper balance between globalization of trade and services and sustainable development. They should use the opportunity to formulate effective strategies for implementing sustainable development in a more forceful way.

Three outcomes are expected from the Johannesburg summit, namely a set of agendas to implement sustainable development, a political declaration by the world's leaders to strengthen their commitment towards sustainable development and a list of partnership arrangements to achieve sustainable development.

All the material for the Johannesburg Summit will be finalized at the two-week fourth Preparatory Committee Meeting of senior officials, ministers, businessmen and community leaders in Bali starting this Monday. More than 6,000 delegates representing governments, the community and business convening in Bali will discuss the final outlines for the upcoming World Summit.

The success of the Bali meeting will therefore to a large degree determine the success of the Johannesburg Summit. Therefore, they must stick to the agenda, and not distracted by issues not related to sustainable development such as anti- terrorism campaign as well as trade-related issues which all might surface in Bali.

For this reason it is important that all delegates assembled in Bali do their utmost in a spirit of saving the earth and humankind.