Earth Summit 2002 - Greenpeace

London, United Kingdom, 22 May 2002: "The launch of UNEP's GEO-3 report is timely," said Greenpeace's Kelly Rigg in response to an assessment of the state of the global environment by the Director General of the United Nations Environment Program, Dr. Klaus Toepfer. The report is being launched as government and NGO representatives from all over the world travel to Bali, Indonesia, for the fourth and final preparatory meeting for the Johannesburg Earth Summit scheduled to take place at the end of August and beginning of September in South Africa.

"Government representatives on their way to Bali should be tested at the door to see whether they've read the UNEP report and know what state the world is really in before they make the decisions which will determine the health or otherwise of our collective future," said Rigg.

Despite noted improvements in some areas such as the ozone layer, UNEP´s report "paints a bleak picture of declining environmental quality," said Rigg, co-ordinator of Greenpeace´s Earth Summit Project. It describes a world in which half of its people could be living in severely water-stressed areas in 30 years time, as well as one in which the poor will be increasingly hard-hit by the impacts of cyclones, floods, droughts and other natural hazards. It explicitly recognises that climate change, and its potential to disrupt weather patterns, lies behind nearly all of the trends described in the report.

Noting that UNEP´s report also recognises that deep cuts in greenhouse gases could result in CO2 concentration stablising in the atmosphere by 2032, Rigg said that Greenpeace would bring this finding to next week´s Earth Summit preparatory meeting in Bali as one more piece of evidence in support of Greenpeace´s proposal that "the Johannesburg Earth Summit kickstarts the renewable energy revolution". According to Greenpeace, unless governments launch a massive program to increase the share of renewable energy to at least 20 percent within the decade, "it will be virtually impossible to stabilise CO2 concentrations".(1)

"In recent statements UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, and the Head of the UN´s Economic and Social Council, Nittin Desai, have both said that without safe energy there can be no safe future for humankind," said Kelly Rigg, "We are now waiting for real commitments at the Bali meeting. That means firm commitments, with clear targets and agreed timetables for implementing those commitments".

UNEP´s GEO report follows on the heels of another UNEP report released last week in Paris, which showed that while the global environment has deteriorated, most companies continue to carry on with 'business as usual'.

At previous preparatory meetings for the Earth Summit, government negotiators have been pinning too much hope on voluntary agreements and 'partnerships' with industry - a strategy doomed to failure. Greenpeace is calling on Ministers heading for Bali next week to show the necessary leadership to reverse this ill-conceived direction.

Footnote:
See Greenpeace "Choose Positive Energy" proposal for the Earth Summit, presented jointly with the WWF.