Delegates warned not to rush for commitment

Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali

Representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) gathered in Bali called on government delegates on Monday to refrain from agreeing on a negotiated action plan due to limited time.

NGOs, such as Consumers International, Friends of the Earth International, Greenpeace International, the World Wide Fund for Nature and local NGOs grouped in the Indonesian People's Forum (IPF) advised delegates not to rush through agreements.

Sandra Moniaga of the IPF told a news conference on Monday that delegations should instead take the three months left prior to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg to continue their deliberation of the text.

She said that if important issues in the negotiated action plan, called the Chairman's Text or Chairman's Paper, were still unresolved, delegates should not insist that the document be finished before the ministerial meeting on Wednesday.

She warned that delegates should not write off unresolved issues simply to achieve a completed document.

"The WSSD meeting will be held to correct the failures made in Rio. It would be ironic then if the Rio document was remedied by a more useless document," she said, referring to the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

"The Chairman's Text, or Bali commitment, would have no meaning unless all the issues were resolved to everyone's satisfaction, and thus, the future of sustainable development would be ensured," she said.

The Chairman's Text is expected to be finalized at the preparatory committee meeting for the World Summit in progress in Bali.

The NGOs also conveyed their call for delegates not to rush through the Chairman's Text in their publication ECO.

Under the heading "Bring your brackets to Johannesburg", the newsletter argued that options should remain open to ensure a better result.

Parts of the text on which delegates disagree have been either bracketed or printed in bold.

"If the right bracketed language makes it to Joburg, advocacy NGOs will campaign on it. We have 48 days left before Joburg starts," it said referring to the upcoming summit in Johannesburg.

The NGOs at ECO have identified 11 unresolved issues from the Chairman's Text they said faced pressure from the U.S.-led negotiation block JUSCANZ.

JUSCANZ stands for Japan, the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

These issues include disagreements over a 10-year program to regulate consumption and production into a more sustainable pattern.

Energy issue disagreements center on global time targets for increasing the share of renewable energy consumption.

Water remains divided over the inclusion of sanitation into a global target to half the number of people who have no access to safe drinking water by 2015.

On biodiversity concerns rest, among others, how strong the priority of conservation should affect natural resource-based industries, such as fisheries.

Talks on trade and environment center on time-bound measures with NGOs also objecting to the paragraph citing that the world's liberalization trend leads to sustainable development.

Other unresolved issues NGOs have highlighted are on agriculture, small island developing states, subsidies, Africa, corporate accountability and public participation.

But as calls mount to continue debates in Johannesburg, the Indonesian delegation requested the negotiations end in Bali.

A member of the Indonesian delegate said that a line should be drawn here in Bali, lest JUSCANZ approach developing countries individually and break up their positions ahead of the Johannesburg summit.

"There is no guarantee that we'll reach a deal in Johannesburg. Because if that doesn't happen we'll end up with the old Rio declaration. That would be a victory for developed countries," the delegate, who refused to be named, said.