Businesses urge governments on commitments
Businesses urge governments on commitments
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali
The international business community joined hands with non- governmental organizations in urging world governments to strengthen their commitment to sustainable development before heading to Johannesburg.
Speaking at a discussion here on Friday, Lynn Schloesser from the International Chamber Commerce said businesses were ready to support all kinds of partnerships as soon as governments set the time targets for their commitments.
Schloesser, also a member of the American Business Council, said that time targets were extremely important to allow businesspeople to move forward and take the initiative with partnerships.
"It's like doing things in a business. We need to make plans and there should be time targets as they are important factors in ensuring accountability," Schloesser said.
He further said that it was only with specific government frameworks that the business community could fully support sustainable development.
Setting time-bound measures in the draft plan of implementation has become the major sticking point in the negotiations during the two-week preparatory committee (PrepCom) meeting in Bali.
The ministerial meeting in Bali for the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg has to finalize the draft plan of implementation as mandated by the United Nations.
Many have expressed disappointment as the final session failed to resolve many of the outstanding issues.
They also questioned the good faith of governments regarding better earth management.
Initiatives for partnerships, known as type 2, or non- negotiated, documents, should cover concrete projects for sustainable development.
This type 2 initiative, however, should be supported by government commitments through type 1, or negotiated, documents in the draft plan of implementation.
The business community, which is often considered as being on the other side of the fence as far as sustainable development is concerned, urged that commitments should come first.
Only then could concrete actions through partnerships be pursued by businesses.
"We are very disappointed that the WSSD (World Summit on Sustainable Development), which should have become the initial step for partnerships, has been stalled," Scholesser said.
Scholesser stressed that the business community needed commitments from the governments that went beyond the Rio declaration.
"We need something that goes beyond Rio, so we can move forward with the sustainable development idea," he remarked.
A representative from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Annik Dollacker, also said that she hoped to bring back concrete concepts of partnership to her colleagues, but that seemed to be a hard item to sell.
"We expect to sell the idea to our forum, and we still hope that the Johannesburg meeting will be the initial step to setting up initiatives for partnerships," Dollacker said.
She asserted that partnerships could not be a solution without clear regulations from governments, from whom companies would receive the standards to be applied in the partnerships.
Kim Carstenson from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) shared the view of the businesses, saying that the business community would have the confidence to join the partnerships only if the governments displayed strong political commitment.
"Government delegations should go back to their countries and come with good commitments. This is crucial to ensuring the Johannesburg Summit does not fail," Carstenson said.
He underlined that business action would only be successful if governments established the framework for how the partnerships should work.