A draft blueprint to fight global poverty has virtually been completed for adoption at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the United Nations and South Africa confirmed on Monday.
They said the only remaining outstanding matter related to energy, and this was expected to be completed well before the last day of the summit in Sandton.
”Everything is pretty tied up at this point,” UN senior advisor Lowell Flanders told reporters at the summit.
South African cabinet minister Valli Moosa — at a separate briefing — said: ”The document is virtually completed. There will be no need to negotiate until the last day of the conference.”
Moosa, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, has been chairing a group of ministers who he said had negotiated around the clock for the past three days to finalise the conference document.
The last-gasp talks were aimed at sorting out a number of sticking points which experts and officials were unable to resolve during informal deliberations last week.
The summit started a week ago and will be concluded by a three-day session of 104 heads of state that ends on Wednesday. They are to adopt the blueprint which outlines an action plan to reduce poverty without destroying the environment.
Moosa said the two unresolved issues related to steps required to give more people access to energy, and the need for measures to create a renewable energy industry.
”To many countries this has been linked to many other elements of the plans of implementation. The manner this pans out in the end will be influenced by some of the decisions that have already been taken.”
Moosa said most of the issues resolved in the past day or two related to targets and time frames.
”By 3am this morning (Monday) we have been able to complete… the sections dealing with sanitation, water, biodiversity, and trade and finance.”
Flanders mentioned one other outstanding matter, which he said was one sentence about health services in Africa.
He was, however, confident that this as well as the energy issues would be sorted out during the day.
”The ministers are showing a great deal of determination to complete these negotiations,” Flanders said.
A second document still to be finalised before the end of the summit is a political declaration by the world leaders in attendance.
South Africa, as host country, had drawn up a draft that was currently being distributed for comment to the 195 countries taking part in the conference.
”This process would be completed after they have given their input to the UN,” South African Minister in the Presidency, Essop Pahad, said.
The draft declaration pledges, among others things, that participating nations will put into action a global sustainable development programme that will give ”absolute priority” to bridging the divide between rich and poor. – Sapa