EARTH SUMMIT BEACHED IN BALI

Web version:
http://www.foe.co.uk/pubsinfo/infoteam/pressrel/2002/20020607173839.html

For Immediate Release: 7th June 2002

EARTH SUMMIT BEACHED IN BALI
TALKS END WITH NO AGREEMENT.

The fourth and final preparatory meeting for the Earth Summit has
ended in Bali with no final agreement - abandoning the planet on
the road to ruin.

Last month's UNEP report on the state of the world's environment
said the planet was at a "crucial crossroads". Klaus Toepfer,
Executive Director of UNEP said: "We need concrete actions, we
need concrete timetables and we need iron will from all sides."
But ministers meeting in Bali before this summer's Earth Summit
have ignored this ultimatum to act.

And world super-power, the United States must accept much of the
blame for this failure, by doing everything possible to prevent
agreement on legally binding commitments.

In a statement UK Secretary of State for the Environment, Margaret
Beckett said: "We now have formal recognition at a global level
that the goals of sustainable development can only be delivered by
partnerships between governments, business, and civil society".

But Friends of the Earth criticised the proposals in the text,
which if adopted, will see governments abdicating their
responsibility for the world's environment to big business.

The environmental group pointed to the failure to include binding
responsibilities or duties on trans-national corporations with
respect to their social and environmental impacts in the text.
Instead the document suggests that "voluntary agreements with
business can achieve this goal.

Craig Bennett, of Friends of the Earth said:
"Margaret Beckett went to Bali faced with the challenge of taking
concrete action to rescue the planet. Instead, along with he r
EU and US colleagues , she has contributed to a giant fudge. If
the governments of the world cannot work together to make the
Earth Summit in Johannesburg a success, we will all suffer the
consequences - with climate change, forest destruction, water
shortages and increasing world poverty. "

Notes:
[1] "The State of the Environment: Past, Present, Future?"
UNEP 2002 See www.unep.org

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