Pledges to protect the world鈥檚 fish stocks and halve the number of people without clean drinking water and toilets are at the heart of agreements reached at the World Summit this week. The strength of the agreements ultimately surprised pessimists, who had feared a backward step from the promises made at the Earth Summit a decade ago.
But there was a late disappointment when the summit failed to agree renewable energy targets.
The emotional high spot of the negotiations came in the early hours of Monday morning when, with green lobbyists camped out in the corridor, an impassioned speech from Ethiopian environment chief Ato Tewolde forced the deletion of text that would have required all international environmental agreements to be 鈥渃onsistent鈥� with the rules of the World Trade Organization. 鈥淚鈥檝e never seen so many environment ministers hugging one another,鈥� said an observer.
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The summit agreed to:
鈻猺estore depleted fish stocks 鈥渨here possible not later than 2015鈥� and set up networks of marine protected areas
鈻猦alve the number of people not connected to water supplies to 550 million by 2015
鈻猦alve the number without proper sanitation to 1.2 billion by 2015
鈻�漵ubstantially increase鈥� the use of renewable energy
鈻猰inimise health and environmental impacts of chemicals by 2020
鈻�漵ignificantly reduce the current rate of loss鈥� of species by 2010
鈻猼ackle over-consumption in rich countries
鈻�漰romote corporate responsibility and accountability鈥�
Green activists saw the deletion of the WTO sentence and the addition during talks of a clause on corporate accountability as important victories. 鈥淎ttempts by the WTO and industry to take over the summit have failed,鈥� said Charles Secrett, director of Friends of the Earth in Britain.
And wildlife campaigners were gloomy that the texts on protecting biodiversity and outlawing harmful chemicals were watered down during negotiations. The promise to slow the loss of biodiversity is weaker than an agreement earlier this year at the Biodiversity Convention to 鈥渉alt鈥� extinctions. But not everyone was dismayed. As Clare Short, Britain鈥檚 aid minister, put it: 鈥淭he environment movement always thinks about the stress we put on the planet鈥hey always end up being anti-development without meaning to be. If we carry on like that, the world will split in two.鈥�