Great Summits, Modest Agreements, and Insignificant Actions

By

Stephen Lampe

stephenlampe@msn.com

 

 

The largest conference ever organized anywhere in the world will be holding in Johannesburg, South Africa, from  August 26 to September 4. Estimates of participation in this United Nations-sponsored summit and in associated events range from 40,000 to 65,000 and about 27,000 policemen and women will be required to provide security. As many as 100 presidents and prime ministers, 50 Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of major global corporations and 60 chief justices interested in environmental law will be in attendance, in addition to thousands of NGOs. (I suppose President Obasanjo will be attending and from there will visit two or three or more other countries before returning to Abuja to prepare for his next trip). The conference, formally termed the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) will review progress 10 years after the first global environment conference (the Earth Summit) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992, and will seek to agree on a global action plan that will hopefully promote rapid economic and social development while preserving our planet for future generations.

 

The Earth Summit in Rio resulted in two conventions: one on climate change and another on biodiversity. It also agreed on a program called Agenda 21 designed to alleviate environmental problems, reduce poverty and foster development. The outcome of the Johannesburg summit is likely to be a political declaration reaffirming the principles of the Rio Declaration, and a draft plan for implementation, which will be more action-oriented. But unfortunately there are already reports of a downgrading of the summit’s aims as a direct result of pressure from the United States government and multinational corporations. The U.S. government is reported to be focusing on pushing a free trade agenda through the World Trade organization (WTO). It is similarly reported that Britain's main aim is to encourage developing nations to adopt public-private partnerships to foster economic development and protect the environment. Britain will also encourage poor countries to open up their markets and to abide by the rules laid down by the WTO. Britain’s position, if the reports are correct, is unfortunate and negative, given that WTO is perceived by many to serve primarily the interests of the powerful industrialized countries against those of poor developing ones and WTO’s rules tend to work to diminish the impact of environmental policy and to undermine environmental treaties.

 

The Kyoto Protocol, which is an outcome of the Earth Summit of 1992, aims to cut the emissions of gases that cause global warming by 5 per cent below the levels of 1990 not later than the year 2012. However, since 1992, emissions of carbon dioxide, which are widely held responsible for climate change and global warming, have increased by 10 percent worldwide. They are up by 18 percent in the United States, which has already undermined the achievements of the Earth Summit in Rio by withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol. Progress under Agenda 21 has been limited because of lack of funding. The industrialized countries have fallen far short of fulfilling the pledges they made at Rio to devote more resources to help poorer nations. Rich countries promised to give 0.7 percent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in aid to less developed countries, but only the Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Iceland) and the Netherlands have met the target.  Instead, development aid from the rich countries has actually declined, as a share of GDP, from 0.35 percent in the early 1990s to 0.22 percent in 2000.  Aid fell despite the fact that the rich countries' economies by a total of more than US$10 trillion during the 1990s.

 

One of the saddest stories of our times is that of great  and costly summits which, after long and harrowing negotiations, come to modest agreements that are never implemented or acted upon only to an insignificant extent. The World Bank’s Vice President for Europe, Jean-Francois Rischard, remarked that there exist today some 240 environmental treaties and conventions, but that they suffer from lax or no enforcement even when ratified, and are run by toothless and under-funded secretariats. With respect to Africa, Dr. Mostafa K. Tolba, a former Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in a published lecture entitled The Earth Summit and Africa's Development (Ibadan, lITA, 1993) listed a large number of conventions, protocols, and agreements that had been signed by African governments but which were never implemented, or at best, implemented only  partially and perfunctorily. Tolba noted that secretariats and organizations have been established, meetings held but very little useful actions have been taken. Will the same fate befall NEPAD? “If a long list of previous commitments had been implemented, Africa would already have been on its way to sustainable development", Tolba stated.

 

Can we expect any better from this mother of all summits holding in Johannesburg? James Wolfensohn who, as the President of the World Bank, has relentlessly been pricking the social conscience of the rich nations of the world, in a commentary published on August 21 by Prime-Tass, posed the question “What should the world expect from Johannesburg?” He says the best way to answer the question is to look ahead  and imagine what kind of world we want, not just now, but for our children and our children’s children. “Are we going to leave as our legacy a poorer globe that has more hungry people, an erratic climate, fewer forests, less biodiversity, and is even more socially volatile than today?”, Wolfensohn asks. He goes on to acknowledge that “misguided policies and weak governance have contributed to environmental disasters, growing income inequality, and social upheaval in some countries, often resulting in deep deprivation, riots, or refugees fleeing from famine or civil wars”. He pleads: “Developing countries need to promote democracy, inclusiveness and transparency as they build the institutions needed to manage their resources. Rich countries should increase aid, support debt reduction, open their markets to developing country exporters, and help transfer technologies needed to prevent diseases, and especially to increase energy efficiency and bolster agricultural productivity.”

                                                               

However, given the historical record, no one can be blamed for being sceptical about the ultimate outcome and impact of the mammoth Johannesburg jamboree. The phenomenon of a large number of global and  regional summits leading to conventions, protocols, resolutions, blueprints, etc. that subsequently amount to nothing is real and incontrovertible. It reminds me of what Prophet Isaiah was permitted to foresee spiritually for the times in which we now live; the period of the purification of the world before the God-willed Millennium. Here is Isaiah's statement from three different versions of the Bible:

 

    “Take counsel together, but it will come to nought; speak a

    word, but it will not stand, for God is with us” (Isaiah 8:10,

    Revised Standard Version).

   

    “Devise plans as you may: they will come to nothing! Make

    what pronouncements you like; it will not come about! For

    God is with us!” (Isaiah 8:10, The New Jerusalem Bible).

   

    “Make your plans! But they will never succeed. Talk as much

    as you like! But it is all useless, because God is with us.” (Isaiah

    8:10, Good News Bible, Today's English Version).

   

“God is with us” should be understood in the sense of the anchorage of  Divine Power on earth and the outpouring of spiritual power on earth to an extent never before experienced. Only those plans and initiatives which arise from the genuine volition, conviction, and commitment of the human spirits concerned can be successfully implemented. All conventions, protocols, plans, blueprints, resolutions, etc. are in vain, if they are the result of hypocrisy, political or economic expediency or hatched for mere material advantage, without the foundation of a genuine volition to do that which is pleasing to God. This implies that we must strive for genuine conviction in everything we do. Our first step should always be to ascertain that our intentions, decisions, plans etc. are in tune with the Laws of Creation, which express the true Will of God. For this and other reasons, the foundation for sustainable development has to be built on the Laws of Creation, which can be observed in life and which I often discuss in my essays.