A top United Nations envoy on Monday called on member nations to reach a viable agreement on sustainable development at the upcoming Earth Summit in Johannesburg.
”If there is no agreement on a plan of action, if there are neither type II (concrete) results nor political statements, the World Summit on Sustainable Development will be a failure,” said Jan Pronk, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s special representative for summit preparations.
Pronk made his comments at the start of a two-day pre-summit conference attended by 500 French politicians, business leaders and members of non-governmental organizations in the western city of Rennes.
The UN World Summit on Sustainable Development, or Earth Summit, is due to be held in Johannesburg from August 26 to September 4. The conference, a follow-up to the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro 10 years ago, is aimed at coordinating economic growth plans and environmental protection in order to guard against global depletion of natural resources.
About 65 000 people are expected to attend the meeting, including some 70 or 80 heads of state, though most have not yet committed themselves.
Pronk, who is also Dutch environment minister, urged heads of state to attend to lend the conference more political weight, and warned against the adoption of empty texts or additions to official documents in preparation.
The final preparatory conference in Bali, Indonesia, ended in disarray last month after delegates failed to agree on key goals.
French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin lent his support to Pronk, telling those assembled in Rennes: ”We don’t have the right to fail.”
”France wants to take action so that Johannesburg is a success,” Raffarin added, noting that Paris was ready to boost its financial aid to developing countries.
France currently contributes 0,32% of its gross national product in development aid, compared with the international goal of getting each industrialised nation to commit 0,7% of GNP to aid efforts. – Sapa-AFP