Delegates may miss Friday deadline on Bali Commitment

Delegates may miss Friday deadline on Bali Commitment

The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali

Despite a few days of intense meetings, a slew of unresolved issues will likely push negotiations on governments' commitments on sustainable development past Friday's deadline. This will likely force Indonesia as host country to extend the talks until Saturday or possibly Sunday.

As of Thursday, differences remain too far a field for a final document called the Chairman's Text to emerge on Friday, the deadline after which delegates expect to start discussing the political declaration based on the Chairman's Text.

A senior government official explained on Thursday that the Chairman's Text was originally supposed to be finalized during the third preparatory meeting in New York.

"As yet there hasn't been a compromise between the different interests," said the official, who refused to be named.

The Chairman's Text, which is to be called the Bali Commitment, is a set of action plans on sustainable development principles that delegates expect to finalize before world leaders meet for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa, next August through September.

Over the past two days, working groups negotiating the Chairman's Text have been meeting from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. But issues which from the start were deemed tough remain largely untouched.

They mostly cover paragraphs under chapter IX on the means and implementation of the action plan. Others on which negotiations have just begun relate to the effectiveness of international bodies dealing with sustainable development.

We have to push ahead, if Friday is not possible, we'll continue on Saturday and Sunday," the official said, adding that as host, Indonesia must ensure it meets the UN mandate to finalize negotiations here.

"Mr. Emil Salim -- as the chairman of this UN meeting -- has made this very clear. We will continue to seek common ground."

Negotiations on the 39-page Chairman's Text are divided into three working groups discussing the nine chapters of the text. Djumala Darmansjah representing Indonesia in working group II, discussing the means and implementation, said demands to incorporate time targets into sustainable development programs were tough to meet.

He said a number of developed countries, notably the United States and Japan, opposed the measures, while developing countries and the European Union supported the time targets.

Developing countries and many non-governmental organizations view time targets as crucial to get concrete actions. The 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil fell short of producing the measures promised under the Rio declaration in the absence of time targets.

Djumala said that while including time targets on promised programs forced governments to commit to concrete actions, the U.S. argued it could not commit any resources without Congress' approval.

But according to him, this is a negotiation tactic. The U.S., he was sure, was willing to compromise despite its unflinching stance over the issue.

These compromises would likely be made once the committee as a whole meets to wrap up the negotiation with all three working groups joining.

Djumala estimated three scenarios in which the debate on the time targets could end. One was that the U.S. and other developed countries agree to include time targets in the Chairman's Text. Second was that no time targets make it to the text. And third was that developed countries agree only to time targets on social programs that were already pledged under the UN Millennium Goals, which aim to cut poverty and stop over-exploitation of planet earth.

Other issues that would likely make it to the committee include the use of the Official Development Assistance (ODA), proposals on debt payment schemes, and reforming the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Indonesian delegate Slamet Hidayat at working group III on institutional architecture said that talks on improving the effectiveness of the UN's Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) and the UN Environment (UNEP) were still in the early stages.

The negotiation aims to seek ways for the two UN bodies to better coordinate with each other, as the CSD also lacks authority to accelerate sustainable development programs.

Differences remain over whether to empower CSD or UNEP, as both bodies handle environmental issues, with CSD covering the other two pillars of sustainable development -- economics and social affairs.