Earth Summit 2002 - Greenpeace

New York, US, 5 April 2002: As it becomes clear that the US is flagrantly ignoring the mandate of the UN's Earth Summit, yet another exposé yesterday revealed evidence of how the Bush government will stop at nothing to undermine international agreements that might save the planet from wholesale destruction.

As the Third Session of the Preparatory Committee (Prepcom III) for the Johannesburg Earth Summit grinds inconclusively to a halt, Greenpeace called upon governments today to either stand up for people and the planet to make the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development an action plan for the future, or wear the blame along with the US for dismantling more than three decades of international efforts to protect the environment, enhance social justice, and ensure economic opportunities for all.

"It's clear that the US's game plan is to systematically undermine the rest of the world's attempts to reach agreements of global significance. We all know that environmental degradation, social inequity and war do not respect national boundaries: Only agreements between nations will give us any chance of holding back the tide," said Remi Parmentier, Political Director of Greenpeace International.

"We're wondering, and you can bet a lot of other voters out there are as well, just whose side their governments are on. Those governments which are not sucked into the US vortex need to stand up and show some leadership before it's too late for us and them," said Parmentier.

It would appear that under this new US vision the highest calling for government is to run an efficient business park, and the Johannesburg Summit may turn out to be nothing more than a glorified trade fair for US and other multinational corporations, if the United States gets its way.

The US, backed primarily by Australia, has threatened to veto ANY meaningful political agreements at Johannesburg, and is instead arguing in favor of purely voluntary and unenforceable agreements with the private sector to address the major global problems of poverty alleviation, environmental destruction and economic development.

This is directly in contravention of the UN General Assembly Resolution which convened the Summit, with the specific goal of agreeing concrete action plans with targets and timetables to implement Agenda 21, the wide-ranging agreement on sustainable development agreed at the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

'We call on governments to accept the responsibility for which they were elected, and not let the US get away with this," said Parmentier, "Bush does not have the moral authority to use the UN for his and his oil cronies' ends."

Media Contacts:
Remi Parmentier +31 6 53504702
Steve Sawyer +31 6 53504715
Susan Cavanagh +31 6 212 96910

* The US has actively sought to delete all references to the Kyoto Protocol in the negotiating text, despite George Bush's promise to European leaders last June, and reiterated this February, that the US would not stand in the way of nations which wanted to proceed with the Kyoto Protocol, the only international instrument to tackle climate change.

* The US, along with its allies in Australia, Canada, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, have actively opposed any concrete action to boost the renewable energy industry; either to combat poverty or to fight climate change.

* Earlier this week, it was revealed that the United States, at the urging of Exxon Mobil Corporation, is seeking to undermine the scientific integrity of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, seeking to oust the current Chairman, American Bob Watson, because of highly informed and widely supported views on the science of climate change. "Now that the Bush Administration has failed in all its attempts to attack climate science, it has now resorted to attacking the scientists," said Parmentier.

* Greenpeace has learned today that the US plans, as part of their anti-environment diplomatic offensive, to send EIGHTY "observers" to the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, which the US signed at the first Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, but typically, now refuses to ratify. "This is an awful lot of notetakers," said Parmentier, "almost one for every other national delegation". Developing countries have expressed vehemently their need to have control of the use of their genetic resources to prevent the 'bio-piracy' currently practiced by US pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation, and ensure benefit sharing.