Summit agrees on energy plan without targets, stuck on health

9.00am

JOHANNESBURG - Exhausted ministers ended lengthy talks in Johannesburg this morning (NZT) with an agreement to promote "green" energy that avoided the thorny issue of setting targets for switching away from oil and other fossil fuels.

However, an unforeseen new dispute involving women's health cropped up to thwart full and final agreement on a wide-ranging United Nations action plan to ease poverty and save the environment.

Until the early hours of this morning, an accord on promoting renewable energy sources like solar power was all that stood between a final action plan for governments at the Earth Summit.

In the end, the European Union abandoned efforts to embed targets for increasing use of renewable energy sources after opposition from the United States and Opec oil exporters.

But delegates were unable to sign off the text, despite a compromise on energy, as last-minute questions persisted over text that some said could be interpreted as softening disapproval of female genital mutilation or abortion.

"It's the only thing left. It's not clear if we'll get an agreement tonight," one European official said after marathon talks on the sticky issue of energy ended in what green groups slammed as a sell-out to oil producers like the United States.

Canadian delegates said they would seek to amend today a previously agreed paragraph -- one of about 150 in the text -- dealing with access to healthcare. As agreed by officials before the meeting began a week ago, the text said healthcare should be provided in a way consistent with "cultural and religious values".

Women rights campaigners say that softens agreed UN texts that healthcare should also conform to "all human rights". They argue that dropping the human rights reference could justify cultural practices like mutilating the genitals of young women.

"Canada sees this as a broad and fundamental matter of strong and unwavering international commitments to human rights," the Canadian delegation said in a statement.

Officials said some delegations did not want to re-open agreed paragraphs and others said the United States appeared concerned that adding the reference to "human rights" might seem to strengthen women's claims to abortion -- a controversial issue for Americans. US officials played that down, however.

On energy, environmentalists said they were disappointed.

"We haven't moved forward a single inch with this document. There is no plan of action...We blame the usual suspects: the Americans and the Saudis got what they wanted," said Steve Sawyer, climate policy director of campaign group Greenpeace.

With world leaders speaking formally at the summit for the first time on Monday, some of their ministers were under intense pressure in a small room nearby to bridge their differences.

Ministers talked into the early hours of Monday but failed to settle the matter. After much bustle and activity behind closed doors, the European Union eventually gave in and agreed to a text without targets or timetables.

Under the approved text, countries agreed to act "with a sense of urgency" to increase substantially the world's share of renewable energy resources to increase the sector's contribution to total energy supply.

Instead of a hoped-for EU target to increase renewable energy to 15 per cent of all global energy consumption from 14 per cent, the text only recognises the role of regional and voluntary initiatives. This is in line with a proposal backed by the United States, Japan and the G77 group of developing countries, in which the Opec states played a key role.

"This is not an ideal text for us but we could see the writing on the wall," said EU Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom. "There is always compromise if you want to have an agreement".

Wallstrom said the EU did not interpret the text as promoting nuclear energy, a key concern of green groups, although the text does not refer to it specifically either.

Environmentalists consider renewable energy as key to reducing the emissions from fossil fuels that are blamed for causing climate change and air pollution and say securing targets on energy is central to the summit's success.

Following the rejection of the 1997 Kyoto climate treaty by the United States last year, campaigners were keen to get Washington and others to declare the importance of wind, solar and other renewables and promise to use more of them.

- REUTERS

Johannesburg Summit