Preparatory meetings to hammer out action plan
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Preparatory meetings for the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) are currently underway in New York, and will be continued in Bali, Indonesia, from late May through early June, to hammer out the action plan for the summit.
The third Preparatory Committee (PrepCom), chaired by former Indonesia environment minister Emil Salim, is currently meeting in New York until April 5 to focus on the new commitment made at the recent international conference on financing for development held in Monterrey, Mexico.
The United Nations said in a statement that the results of the Monterrey conference provided a boost for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, which will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, next August.
Through the summit, governments, together with all players in society, will seek to marshal resources to carry out realistic and practical initiatives aimed at promoting sustainable development.
PrepCom III is primarily a negotiating session based on the chairman's paper agreed at the conclusion of PrepCom II.
After this PrepCom, there will be one more preparatory meeting at the ministerial level in Bali from May 27 to June 7, where participants will consider a political declaration to be endorsed by heads of state and governments in Johannesburg.
In Monterey, leaders from the European Union and the United States promised to increase resources to fight poverty, a major objective of the Johannesburg Summit, while developing countries committed themselves to mobilize domestic funds for development.
Based on the broad agreement arrived at in Monterrey, the new round of negotiations for the Summit will be aimed at reaching a consensus on exactly what needs to be done to put sustainable development into practice -- to promote economic growth, social development and environmental protection.
Much is at stake at the summit in Johannesburg. The international community will determine how far it will commit itself to promoting economic growth in a globalized world while fighting problems such as poverty, environmental degradation, diseases such as AIDS, and unemployment, according to Johannesburg Summit secretary-general Nitin Desai.
"If we think ahead and act now, we can change from business as usual to a new way of conducting political business, so that everyone -- including future generations -- can benefit," Desai said.
He called Johannesburg "an historic opportunity to forge a nonmilitary alliance to secure a safer, more secure and just world."
But Desai warned that to achieve progress, world leaders must demonstrate the political will to move forward, and there must be practical measures on the table that could be implemented through partnerships.
The negotiations at this preparatory meeting, PrepCom III, are challenging. While there is a consensus that Agenda 21, the blueprint for sustainable development adopted at the 1992 Earth Summit, remains a valid long-term vision, implementation has been sluggish and the participants maintain widely varying positions on how to move forward.
There are many seemingly competing interests. Poorer countries, where 1.2 billion people live on less than one dollar a day, want the Summit to focus on fighting poverty.
Small island developing states are concerned that present production and consumption patterns are contributing to global warming and rising sea levels, which threaten their existence. Environmentalists are seeking action to protect and preserve the world's ecosystems.
Others want to focus on health, social development, economic growth and human rights. Some want stronger international action while others look to greater domestic responsibility.