World Summit on Sustainable Development Department of Public Information - News and Media Services Division - New York
	Johannesburg, South Africa 26 August-4 September 2002	28 August 2002

DAILY BRIEFING BY SUMMIT SPOKESWOMAN   Negotiations on the World Summit's draft plan of implementation seemed to be going extremely well, Susan Markham, Spokeswoman for the Summit said at today's noon press briefing. She said a number of targets had been agreed, including those concerning the elimination of health-related impacts of pollution (by 2004), eliminating gender disparity in education by 2005, developing food strategies by 2005 and restoring fish stocks by 2015. To give an update on the targets and the significance of the agreement on them, she called on the United Nations senior adviser coordinating the drafting groups, Lowell Flanders, who said that establishing targets and timetables for the implementation of Agenda 21 had been one of the General Assembly's objectives in setting up the Summit and would be one measure of its success. About 17 paragraphs incorporating timetables had been agreed upon at the preparatory session in Bali and four more in Johannesburg. Ms. Markham, noting that important agreements had been reached in negotiations relating to fisheries, oceans and many of the concerns of small island States, introduced Neroni Slade, Permanent Representative of Samoa to the United Nations and Chairman of the Alliance of Small Islands States (AOSIS). She asked him to explain the significance of the agreement and the concerns of governments that had previously prevented agreement. Mr. Slade said that the significance of the section on small island States was that an entire chapter of the draft implementation plan had been devoted to them. Much of the work had been done in Bali, leaving three outstanding issues: delimitation of maritime areas; questions relating to energy; and the prevention of waste and pollution. He said that the broader significance of the section was that small island States were in the forefront on the issues of climate change, loss of biodiversity and the health of the oceans, although those problems were not of their making. At the same time, those States faced the same challenges as other developing countries, such as: poverty and the shortage of fresh water. Ms. Markham said the agreement on fisheries was part of a series of provisions recognizing that the world's oceans were in trouble and that three-quarters of its fisheries had been fished beyond sustainable capacity. A press release on the agreements relating to fisheries was available on the racks or from the Spokeswoman's office. It was also on the Web site. Announcing more good news on the negotiations, she said the contact group on globalization, trade and finance had agreed on 52 paragraphs, leaving only 20, after having met until 3 a.m. She introduced John Ashe, Deputy Permanent Representative of Antigua and Barbuda to the United Nations, who is the contact group's facilitator, asking how it had been possible to reach agreement so quickly. He said that dedication and a spirit of give-and-take on both sides had marked the negotiations. One key issue that remained was whether or not to call for a reduction or phasing out of agricultural and export subsidies beyond what was mentioned in the Doha trade round agreements. In other announcements, the Spokeswoman said that that the fifth in the series of partnership plenary sessions focusing on the priority areas identified by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan was continuing this morning. The interactive discussion was focusing on water and sanitation and this afternoon's discussion would be on energy. She said that in introducing the issue of water and sanitation, Margaret Catley-Carlson, Chair of the Global Water Partnership, had said she had learned yesterday that some 500 lakes in China had simply disappeared. She said water management was still given low priority in nearly all planning, perhaps because only the poorest countries and people suffered from its mismanagement. She circulated a booklet entitled "A Framework for Action on Water and Sanitation" prepared by the United Nations WEHAB working group. Tomorrow morning, the partnership plenary would conclude with an interactive discussion on regional implementation and a wrap-up of the discussions held during the previous three days, Ms. Markham said. Tomorrow afternoon the plenary would shift focus and begin a general debate with speakers from non-State entities. The first 25 speakers for tomorrow afternoon were listed in today's Journal and the remainder would be listed in tomorrow's edition. She said that as of today, 191 countries were represented at the Summit, following the arrival of Chad. The confirmed number of heads of State or government was 109, two more than the 107 present at the Rio Summit in 1992. Asked about the negotiations based on the new text presented by the facilitator, Mr. Ashe said there had been progress, but he had not yet reported to the Chairman of the Vienna process. Negotiations would resume at 3 p.m. and if agreement could absolutely not be reached, a decision would be made as to whether to go to the ministerial level. He told another journalist that agreement had been reached on such financial issues as official development assistance (ODA), mobilizing domestic resources and creating an enabling environment while the agreement on trade reaffirmed the Doha agreements. On globalization, the difficulty was how to characterize it. Was the globalization picture entirely positive, as some would like to paint it, or should the existing challenges be recognized? Asked about the targets relating to sanitation and access to safe drinking water, Mr. Flanders said the contact group was still working on that issue and no agreement had been reached yet. In response to a request for elaboration on the fishing stocks agreement, Mr. Slade said it was an acknowledgement of a situation that had existed for some time. Global concern about depleted stocks had been expressed at Rio and was being repeated now. Figures from the Food and Agriculture Organization as well as from subregional organizations all confirmed the very serious situation, he added. Asked to confirm that agreement had been reached on the question of debt, Mr. Ashe replied that it had been agreed. Asked what kind of language had been used in dealing with the issue of corporate responsibility and accountability, he said the text had not been agreed and delegations had asked for more time to consider it further. Mr. Slade told another journalist that discussions on climate change were going on and would go back to the Vienna process. Clarifying the status of negotiations on subsidies, Mr. Ashe said that issue could be a sticking point and would possibly be considered at another level. Ms. Markham told journalists who reported the loss of their belongings that storage lockers were available. Press Conferences Summit News