World Summit on Sustainable Development: Daily Highlights

Johannesburg, South Africa (26 August-4 September 2002)

Thursday 29 August

Countries and international organizations began announcing partnership initiatives at the World Summit on Sustainable Development aimed at achieving tangible results. One of the major outcome of the Summit, the partnerships mark a major innovation that will connect the negotiated document with actual implementation efforts. "The partnership initiatives are intended to ensure that there is real action toward sustainable development after the Summit, " Johannesburg Summit Secretary-General Nitin Desai said. "Too often, we have seen conferences end with only a document. We need government commitments-that's what the negotiations are for. But we need to know who is actually planning to implement what the Summit decides." But he cautioned that the partnerships should not serve as a substitute for government commitments.
The European Union announced that it was launching major partnership initiatives on water and energy. Poul Nielson, European Commissioner fo Development and Humanitarian Aid, said the "Water for Life" initiative aimed to halve the number of people without access to clean water or proper sanitation. The EU, he said, is already the largest donor in the water field, with funding averaging around 1.4 Euros a year. "We are ready to increase this amount in coming years," he said. The EU officials stressed, however, that while they committed to developing partnerships, the partnerships should never be "an excuse of avoiding governmental commitments.
The United States announced that they would be highlighting five initiatives, a "Water for the Poor Initiative that will invest $970 million over three years, a "Clean Energy Initiative," that will invest $43 in 2003 to increase energy efficiency and reduce air pollution; and initiative aimed at cutting hunger in Africa, an investment of $90 million in 2003; $53 million over the next four years for a Congo Basin Forest Partnerships; and a reaffirmation of the $1.2 billion in 2003 for fighting HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
The United Nations has received 218 partnership submissions, and more than 40 will be showcased over the next three days.
UNDP announced that it was launching partnership initiatives aimed at promoting community actions that have global impacts in water, energy, agriculture and biodiversity.
About 90 percent of the text is now complete, with agreement reached on a provision to minimize the adverse effects of toxic chemicals by 2020.
John Ashe, Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations from Antigua and Barbuda, who is chairing the talks on trade, finance and globalization reported that that the key to the progress so far has been the "good spirit in the room" that allowed delegates to work to 3:00 in the morning. On the outstanding issues, Ashe said negotiations were continuing on the issue of phasing out subsidies, and there were still disagreements on how to characterize the effects of globalization, as an opportunity as well as a challenge.
In other negotiations, countries agreed to restore depleted fisheries by 2015. About three-quarters of the world's fisheries are fished to their sustainable limits or beyond. Neroni Slade, Permanent Representative of Samoa to the United Nations, and Chairman of the Alliance of Small Island States, said agreement was an acknowledgement of a situation that has existed for years. "The specific target of 2015 is an attempt to reverse the trend," adding that, "this is a very satisfactory result."
Today's plenary sessions-conversations moderated by the Secretary-General's Special Envoy to the Summit Jan Pronk--focused on water and sanitation and energy. In the water session, concern was raised that insufficient high-level political attention had been given to the issue, which is vital for development, fighting disease, and management of water resources. Margaret Catley-Carlson, chair of the Global Water Partnership, said water management is still given low priority perhaps because only the poorest countries and people suffered from the problem.
191 countries are attending the Summit, one of the largest turnouts for any UN conference.
The number of people attending the Summit continues to grow. So far, 17,417 people have been accredited, including 7,681 delegates, 6,585 NGOs, and 3,151 media representatives.