Fine words mask doubts on value of mega-talks

JOHANNESBURG - As the remaining delegates left the Earth Summit yesterday, many wondered if they had just experienced the last global mega-conference.

Politicians from many of the nearly 200 countries who met to discuss sustainable development said the summit fell far short of its aim of setting out a blueprint for reducing poverty and cleaning up the environment.

The summit's finish was delayed a couple of hours as delegates negotiated the wording of a political declaration to accompany the plan.

"We commit ourselves to act together, united by a common determination to save our planet, promote human development and achieve universal prosperity and peace," it said.

"We declare our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life and to future generations."

The summit agreed on a 34-paragraph declaration which said that global society "has the means and is endowed with the resources to address the challenges of poverty eradication and sustainable development confronting all humanity".

The declaration, written by the South African President, Thabo Mbeki, concludes: "To achieve our goals of sustainable development, we need more effective, democratic and accountable international and multilateral institutions.

"Unless we act in a manner that fundamentally changes their lives, the poor of the world may lose confidence in their representatives and the democratic systems to which we remain committed."

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told the closing session: "We have to have a radical change of the format of these summits.

"There isn't a debate, there is no dialogue. It seems to be a dialogue of the deaf," he said to sustained applause, adding that hard-hitting rhetoric by heads of state was not reflected in the action plan.

Non-governmental organisations also slammed the plan, which repeated many pledges already made by countries on issues like aid, trade and preserving natural resources, but contained few new promises of concrete action.

While those who were disappointed blamed the "usual suspects" - selfish rich countries, big business, the oil lobby - many pointed the finger at the process itself.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, whose country holds the rotating European Union presidency, did not think mega-summits were effective. "The 1990s were the decade of mega-summits. I think we should make the next 10 years the decade of action."

Other delegates were even more sceptical.

"International bureaucrats exist to keep themselves in jobs. The process is more important than the result. It is a completely meaningless waste of money," said Mukhamed Tsikanov, a Russian deputy trade minister.

Mbeki was clearly delighted with the way his country had hosted the event, which suffered none of the major violence that marred previous summits in Seattle and Genoa.

But Meena Raman of the Third World Forum, although highly critical of what she saw as Johannesburg's failure to deliver for the world's poor, said it had not been a total waste of time.

"It was important for us to see where Governments stood."

- REUTERS

Johannesburg Summit