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Rich countries refuse to pay their environmental and social debt
 Bali, Indonesia, 23.30, June 7, 2002: The final PrepCom for the Johannesburg Earth Summit has broken down without a final resolution on key issues. Greenpeace launched its countdown to Johannesburg today, calling on governments to seize the 80 days between now and the Summit to fulfil the promises they made in Rio 10 years ago.
Since yesterday afternoon, negotiations here in
Bali have focussed on the question of whether or not the rich nations
of the world would come up with the cash to pay for the implementation
of the Rio agreements. For a time, it looked like a deal would be
struck between the EU and G-77 and China, isolating the US, Canada
and Australia completely. In the end, however, it was agricultural
subsidies that broke down the negotiations.
Rich countries spend hundreds of billions of dollars every year
subsidising agriculture, fisheries, and the fossil fuel and nuclear
industries. At the end of the day, they wouldn’t agree to
practice the liberal economics that they preach, and continue to
squeeze poor farmers, fishermen and the renewable energy industry
into the margins. The extraordinary hypocrisy of demanding subsidy
reduction and neo-liberal economic policies in the countries of
the south, while practicing old fashioned protectionism at home,
is not lost on most here in Bali. They sing the praises of globalisation
and the WTO, but when push comes to shove, they won’t abide
by the rules that they try to impose on the developing world.
Plenary will reconvene at some point late tonight, at which time
it is expected that the ‘current’ text will be forwarded
wholesale to Johannesburg.
Greenpeace International Political Director Remi Parmentier said:
“The shameful hypocrisy of the rich countries have brought
this unfortunate episode to a close, but all of the key issues are
still in play for Johannesburg. It’s not too late for governments
to take their responsibilities seriously and agree a meaningful
action plan in Johannesburg. They must seize the next 80 days.
Greenpeace launched its Countdown to Johannesburg today, an action-oriented
public campaign to bring home the message that the public will accept
nothing less than a real action plan from Johannesburg, which tackles
poverty and the environment, and climate change, with concrete goals,
time-tables and means of implementation.
Contact: Steve Sawyer +62 8179710053, +316 53504715
Susan Cavanagh +61 8179710052, +31 621296910
Take
action: Write
to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan to urge him to put
the Earth Summit back on track.
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