*{What Ever Happened to Sustainable Development? [http://www.weforum.org/site/knowledgenavigator.nsf/Content/What%20Ever%20Happened%20to%20Sustainable%20Development%3F?open&topic_id=300600000&theme_id=300]

            30.01.2001

            Annual Meeting 2001}

            *partie=titre Environmental Treaties "the Peace Pacts of the 21st Century" *partie=nil

            We know how international trade officials feel about globalization (for), non-governmental organization protestors, too (against), but how about international environmentalists, concerned with sustainable development and the Rio+10 environmental conference in Johannesburg next year to review progress since the 1992 Earth Summit?

            "It is ironic that some NGOs question the [positive] effects of globalization on the developing world, saying globalization wrecks developing countries," said Claude Martin, Director-General, WWF International, Gland. At the opening of the Annual Meeting this year President Benjamin William Mkapa of Tanzania and the Indian Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha complained that the developing countries areis not yet benefiting from globalization, he noted. They were more concerned by tariffs, subsidies and unequal access to developed country markets. If they got what they wanted, this would be an increase in globalization. "This is what is often not understood," he observed.

            He called for efforts to be directed to better analyses of the stumbling blocks to sustainable development. "Why don't we ask for sustainability assessments of trade rules or what are the root causes for biodiversity loss and the impact on the livelihood of rural populations?" he asked. "We know relatively little."

            Mohamed T. El-Ashry, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Global Environment Facility, USA, declared that the stakeholders in development are "not just 400 demonstrators against the World Economic Forum and Seattle" but the 3 billion people currently living on under US$ 2 a day. The lesson he would take from Davos is the need for wider sharing of experience as he found here between corporations, NGOs and government representatives as well as the hope that the personal contacts made at the World Economic Forum will continue.

            Klaus Töpfer, Executive Director, United Nations Environmental Programme, Nairobi, said Rio+10 will need to bring bodies like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization into practical discussions to make globalization an asset for the world. Just as Rio was about e+d (environment and development), Rio+10 will be the "e+g" conference, he predicted. 

            Antony Burgmans, Chairman, Unilever, Netherlands, said he was amazed that not one of the critics of globalization on environmental grounds had raised the question of raising standards of living. "If we can't raise standards of living we can stop talking about sustainable development," he said. "The best way of raising living standards is inclusion in the global trading system."

            El-Ashry called for Rio+10 to focus on a small range of issues, including water, forests, biodiversity, energy and poverty, rather than try for global scope. Töpfer agreed but suggested adding human health to the issue. He urged people to listen carefully to what comes out of the Social Forum in Brazil, particularly about food security, and make pacts signed Rio+10 as concrete as possible. "Global environmental policies will be the peace policies for the future," he said. "These are the new disarmament policies."

            But Martin noted that mustering concrete support for the Earth Summit took two years of full-time work by a whole UN office. Unless the same commitment is made to Rio+10 the conference "will create more resignation than hope - and will be an impediment to all of us."
                       *{Contributors:       Burgmans Antony
                  El-Ashry Mohamed T.
                  Martin Claude
                  Töpfer Klaus}