It ia much too soon to write off the Jo’burg world summit, a group of international non-governmental organisations said on Monday.
Calling itself the ECO-Equity coalition of NGOs, the group said the summit could still be a success for poor people and the environment. The group said that to ensure this the European Union should put its money and energy where its mouth was.
”If it would only live up to its rhetoric on poverty and the environment and put its collective energies into building a coalition of brave and visionary countries, Johannesburg can be made more than a pre-ordained ‘disaster’,” the group said.
With EU leadership, there was a long list of potential partner countries, such as Brazil, Japan, Indonesia and South Africa, which could be part of such a coalition.
The potential results covered a range of crucial issues including renewable energy, cross-border river management, poverty eradication, sustainable consumption and making the corporate world take responsibility for its actions, the group said.
Moreover, the US could be pressured to live up its obligations as the world’s richest nation and the greatest polluter and help bring about real progress at the summit.
The US and EU could help the world’s poorest two billion and relieve the unsustainable pressure on the environment if they agreed to co-operate to reverse the long-term decline in price of primary commodities, it said.
The EU could stop blocking an international framework for corporate accountability and ensure that Johannesburg was the place where negotiations for global business rules were finally started.
The coalition believed that South Africa, as host, had a special role. Results were attainable, the group said.
”They need leadership, hard work and a collective decision by just a few countries to put selfish interest on the back shelf and reinvigorate the multi-lateral system.”
The group consists of Consumers International, Danish 92 Group, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Oxfam International, NorthernAlliance for Sustainability and the Worldwide Fund for Nature. – Sapa