UN warns discord threatens sustainable development summit

UN warns discord threatens sustainable development summit

Associated Press, Venice

An upcoming UN summit on sustainable development is in danger
of collapsing in discord unless governments act quickly to ensure
political commitments, a UN official said Monday.

World leaders plan to meet in Johannesburg, South Africa, in
August to craft a blueprint seeking to cut poverty and protect
the environment.

But a preparatory session in Bali, Indonesia, ended last week
with delegates from rich and poor nations deadlocked on key
issues including aid money and how it should be spent.

"Bali was a fire alarm for Johannesburg, but the building has
not yet burned down," said Mark Malloch-Brown, head of the U.N.
Development Program.

"If...people quickly don't regroup and start pulling some
plans together, then we're going to be in trouble," said Malloch-
Brown, who joined religious leaders, scientists and
environmentalist at the final port call of a five-day voyage
around the Adriatic Sea.

He worried that "government officials have shown themselves
almost incapable of agreeing on anything" in Johannesburg.

Among the goals: cutting in half by 2015 the number of people
living on less than one dollar a day or unable to reach or afford
safe drinking water.

In Bali, developing nations complained that rich countries
have not kept financial commitments made at the U.N. Earth Summit
in 1992. Wealthy nations, in turn, were wary of setting new
objections with many from the Rio summit's meeting still
unfulfilled.

"That difference of opinion, if left unsolved, can blow up at
Johannesburg," Malloch-Brown said.

The U.S., some European nations and the Group of Seven
countries need "a push" to make new international commitments, he
added.

Malloch-Brown's agency has urged for a "credible action plan"
in Johannesburg to deal with problems in five sectors: water,
energy, health, agriculture and biodiversity.

"That's going to be the real measure of success," he said.