Hopes dim for RI to gain much from Summit

Berni K. Moestafa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The weight of two-thirds of the earth's population in poor countries may not be enough to tip the scales of world development in their favor, amid predictions that the second Earth Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa will likely not agree on a strong action plan for sustainable development.

Touted as the biggest United Nations gathering the world has ever seen, the World Summit on Sustainable Development starting on Monday until Sept 4, is also at risk of becoming a costly failure, analysts warned.

The biodiversity here is reportedly is number two in the world in terms of numbers of plants and animals, so there is much to gain for Indonesia.

"We're one of the key players here, in fact we've been asked by Brazil and South Africa to help this conference run well," Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda said on Thursday.

Brazil, the world's largest in terms of biodiversity, hosted the first earth summit in 1992. The fourth and last round of preparatory meetings for this summit was held in Bali last June.

Despite intensive talks, Bali failed to produce a finished text for Johannesburg. If finalized, the text -- coined as the blueprint for sustainable development -- should set the direction for global development over the next 10 years.

And if strong enough, it may curb overexploitation of natural resources and protect future generations, many of whom will be living in developing countries like Indonesia.

Hassan said that Bali had finalized some 80 percent of the blueprint. However, it is the remaining 20 percent that carries the most important issues.

They mainly revolve around development aid, trade and time targets.

Hassan said that Indonesia, under the negotiation block G-77 and China, would demand developed countries keep their promise to raise aid to 0.7 percent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP). GDP measures the value of products and services a country produces within a year.

Developing countries and non governmental organizations (NGOs) estimated that realization had been about 0.2 percent so far.

G-77 and China insist that since economic development shifts most of the earth's natural resources to rich nations, the latter must pay for the restoration and protection of the environment in poor countries.

Developed countries however demand members of the G-77 and China reduce corruption first to minimize aid being siphoned off.

The G-77 block groups together developing countries to boost their bargaining power at international talks.

Facing them are the European Union under the EU block and JUSCANZ, which stands for Japan, the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Developing countries also moan over unfair trade practices.

Rich countries pour in billions of dollars in subsidies for farmers who flood developing economies with cheap products thereby outcompeting farming conglomerates in those countries.

Another contentious issue are the time targets to bind countries with measurable actions. The G-77 and China and EU are for time bound measures while JUSCANZ is not.

"We want sustainable development to have time targets, and not be left open ended," Hassan said.

Following the Bali debacle however, many NGOs turned pessimistic that the G-77 and China may outweigh EU and foremost JUSCANZ to produce a deal with strong funding and time targets.

"Sustainable Development has become a jargon," said Longgena Ginting of the Indonesian Environment Forum (Walhi).

NGOs fear JUSCANZ would water down the negotiated blueprint with rhetoric that results in a weak document.

"If this happens the public will lose faith over talks on sustainable development," Longgena said.

NGOs have blamed the waning commitment worldwide on the rise of globalization since the World Trade Organization was founded in 1994 -- two years after the first earth summit.

As trade took center stage it often comes at the expense of helping the poor and a surge of exploitation of natural resource.

Now governments were shifting sustainable development measures to the private sector, Longgena said.

He was referring to the type II partnerships which allows countries and companies to initiate their own sustainable development programs.

NGOs fear JUSCANZ will use these partnerships to approach G-77 members individually and "buy" their support for a weaker blueprint.

Longgena said that companies would acquire a green image while in fact they were the main polluters. "We're seeing here the capitalization of sustainable development."

As for Indonesia, he added, the government might be too dependent on aid from rich countries to refuse to sign a weak document and would rather let the Johannesburg summit fail than alienate its cash cow.