BALI, Indonesia, May 27, 2002 (ENS) - Everyone is calling for action to reduce poverty and stop environmental degradation around the world, but exactly what action and by whom is still in question. The last negotiating session before the World Summit on Sustainable Development considered these issues at informal meetings over the weekend at the Bali International Convention Center, and convened in formal session this morning.

Oceans, forests, safe drinking water and sanitation, urban development, atmostpheric pollution, climate change, energy, biological diversity, health services, population pressure, agricultural resources, food security, access to land for women, indigenous rights, small-scale mining ventures, changing unsustainable patterns of consumption and production - and how to fund a plan of action - all are under discussion at PrepCom IV.

PrepCom IV is the fourth and final session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development acting as the Preparatory Committee for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). The goal is to develop a program of action that will be presented to government leaders at the WSSD in Johannesburg, South Africa August 26 to September 4.

United Nations Under-Secretary-General for economic and social affairs Nitin Desai, is serving as secretary-general of the WSSD. He opened the formal session saying the task is, "To come to closure on the program of strengthening implementation of Agenda 21," the plan of action agreed by governments 10 years ago at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

The issue is not simply agreement on the program of action, Desai said, the issue is also "that what we come out with is bold and firm enough to meet the high expections that people have for the Johannesburg summit - a major forward step for sustainable development."

Nitin Desai of India is secretary-general of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Photo courtesy ENB)

Johannesburg is the third leg of this exercise, Desai said, "where we are going to define how sustainability can be put into development to give the new multilateralism a programmatic basis."

This means that this conference is not about renegotiating policy frameworks. Our real challenge is to see how we can put it into action. We must have "clarity of both ends and means," Desai stressed.

He read to the delegates from a WWF document being circulated in Bali, a compact statement that reflects NGO sentiments and concerns. "'The summit will be a failure if government leadership is not shown in the form of a strong action plan with targets and timetables and commitment to the resources to support implementation the action plan. New monitoring and reporting mechanisms are also essential to ensure responsibility and accountability.'"

"The same message is coming from other groups, and this is what the world out there is expecting," Desai told the delegates.

The WWF said here today, "Governments have so far failed miserably to develop a Programme of Action that can even hope to ensure the well being of people and the health and sustainability of our planet."

"It is truly depressing to read the texts produced for the Summit so far," said, Kim Carstensen, CEO of WWF Denmark and Head of WWF's delegation to PrepCom IV. "If they are not changed substantially over the course of the next two weeks, governments will have turned their backs on the people of the world and will have failed utterly to fulfill the responsibility given to the Summit by the UN General Assembly."

PrepComIV Chairman Emil Salim of Indonesia (Photo courtesy ENB)

"The draft text currently before negotiators does not properly address the three pillars of sustainable development - poverty eradication, sustainable consumption and production and ecosystem integrity," Carstensen said.

U.S. delegation leader, Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky, outlined the U.S. position in a policy speech Thursday in Washington. "Our vision for the World Summit on Sustainable Development is twofold," she said.

"First, we believe sustainable development for every nation begins at home with the support of effective domestic policies. This is an unmistakable lesson of past development efforts. Second, we believe that the best way to capitalize upon these effective domestic policies is through building and nurturing local, national, and international public-private partnerships. Through this approach, sustainable development can be achieved in a way that benefits both developing and developed nations."

In a bid for the recognition of democracy as an integral part of sustainable development, Dobriansky emphasized the importance of "good governance, political and economic freedom, and the rule of law" as essential to "natural resource stewardship and environmental protection."

Some nongovernmental organizations meeting in Bali to draft the NGO statement also emphasized the importance of "good governance." John Bonine, founder of the international environmental public interest law organization E-Law and a professor of law at the University of Oregon, said 16 NGO delegates from Asia, the Americas, the Caribbean, Middle East, and Europe endorsed a statement today saying, "Civil society believes that good governance at all levels - local, national, and even international - is critical to sustainable development goals."

The NGO group defined good governance as including three procedural rights: access to information, public participation, and access to justice. "But statements of principles alone are not enough. What is needed is practical implementation, including appropriate multilateral guidelines and instruments," Bonine said.

While such apparent parallel thinking appears promising, many environmental groups are concerned that the Summit will not produce the results the world needs.

Ricardo Navarro, chair of Friends of the Earth International, said, "Northern governments - and the United States in particular - are standing in the way of action at Bali and at the Earth Summit that follows in late August. That means that the Summit may make no progress on some of the most important issues now facing the planet - corporate accountability, trade and economic security, poverty reduction, deforestation, access to water high among them."

"The lives and futures of millions of people will be damaged if the Bali talks fail - if the selfishness and short sightedness of the rich world once again wins out over the needs and interests of the poor and of the global environment," Navarro warned.

Together with other environment, development and labor groups, Friends of the Earth wants the WSSD to secure an international agreement on legally binding corporate accountability.

In the plenary session, adoption of a convention on corporate accountability was urged by women's representative Monique Essed-Fernandes, by Youth representative Afifa Raihana, and by Indigenous Peoples' representative Joji Cariño.

The treaty would, among other things, guarantee communities a legal right of redress for corporate activities that adversely affect them, as well as rights to prior consultation, against displacement and for compensation or reparation. It would guarantee individuals and communities rights over the resources they need to enjoy a healthy and sustainable life, including common property resources such as forests.

A corporate accountability convention would place a duty on directors of corporations to take account of social and environmental factors when taking business decisions, and require corporations to meet best environmental, social, labor and human rights standards wherever they operate.

But the United States is not likely to agree to any new treaty, especially when the Bush administration will not ratify the Kyoto climate protocol as most other industrialized countries are doing.

Dobriansky says that instead the U.S. focus is on forging public-private initiatives. She said the U.S. plans to showcase in Johannesburg the Geographic Information for Sustainable Development Project, which makes satellite imagery available to people around the world.

"These pictures will help them map watersheds, plan agricultural crop strategies, and trace urbanization trends. Linking this data with geographic information systems (GIS), global positioning system (GPS) technology and the Internet gives us new ways to increase productivity and to bring the power of technology to the most distant corner of the world." Dobriansky said that poor regions in Africa are the project's initial focus.