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Australia
in the Context of a Sustainable Asia: I regarded it as a privilege to have attended the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg as a member of the Australian delegation. It has been described as the largest international meeting in history, and was, without doubt, one of the most logistically complex events ever staged—with multiple formal sessions, side events and consultations taking place throughout the two weeks of the Summit. The Australian delegation of 50 people was led by Minister for Environment and Heritage, Dr David Kemp. It included Commonwealth, state and local government officials and parliamentarians, industry representatives, youth, and NGOs. Business was represented on the delegation by four industry associations, Environment Business Australia, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Business Council of Australia and the Minerals Council of Australia. The official agenda of the 2002 World Summit was to review the achievements that have been made since the historic 1992 United Nations Conference in Rio de Janeiro. There was a need to debate what had been done to implement the 1992 Agenda 21 action plan—and to investigate the new factors that have emerged and the corrections that needed to be made. Prior to the Summit ,about 450 issues within the Implementation Plan remained to be resolved. These issues were negotiated between countries’ officials and negotiating groups for several days prior to the start of the Summit. The negotiations were lengthy, frequently tedious and repetitious, and at times frustrating for all who were involved. Long hours were spent mulling over various verbs, adjectives and adverbs proposed throughout the text; all issues were discussed including: health, globalisation, chemicals, trade and finance, patterns of consumption and production, renewable energy, water and sanitation, oceans and fisheries. So what was the final outcome of the Plan of Implementation?
There were several significant achievements. Although not every
group or individual’s expectations and aspirations were achieved,
the summit went a long way towards delivering a set of outcomes
which recognise the need for immediate action. The Plan's highlights
are: I would like to add my personal observations. It is a generalisation, I know, but I make no apology for it—coverage in the Australian media lacked balance and was poorly reported (the ABC and The Financial Review provided some balance). Conversations with friends and colleagues in the European Union and other parts of the world suggested a similar situation everywhere. It seems that the easy option for the media is to report the bad news without considering the onus upon it to inform and provide information aimed at raising the level of the debate. There were suggestions (if you read some media reports) that business had 'hi-jacked' the Summit. Of course this was not true. Indeed, as the head of the UNEP Klaus Topfer said, it was not a question of whether business should have been involved at the WSSD—the tragedy would have been if business were not there. Global outcomes cannot be achieved without input from the private sector. Business is not driven by electoral cycles; there is no doubt that sustainable outcomes will only be achieved by engaging the people who have the resources and ability to deliver them. The Australian Environment Industry Action Agenda (under the chairmanship of Paul Perkins), commissioned jointly by the Minister for Environment and the Minister for Industry, has as one of its major goals: to increase the Australian Environment Industry from $8 billion per year (in 1999) to $40 billion, by 2008. Our industry is strongly positioned to deliver solutions, particularly in Asia—our industry is innovative, motivated, competitive and local. Aid money will only cover ten per cent of what is needed to solve the issues related to water, sanitation, and access to cheap and sustainable energy. The balance will come from the private sector working in partnership with local and regional governments. The Johannesburg Summit was never going to realise everyone’s expectations; but it is also true that many people had expectations which were never likely to be realised. From my own personal perspective, I would certainly agree with the argument that the one thing worse than having a World Summit would have been not having one! In many people’s eyes, there were plenty of deadlines but few targets—but unrealistic targets would have almost certainly have lead to broken promises and unrealistic priorities. Many countries, particularly those from the G77, repeatedly made the point that removal of harmful trade barriers and unfair subsidies is more important that increasing the aid money—a message that sadly still seems to fall on some deaf ears in Europe. On the subject of governance, I would say that, just as there has been poor governance within some countries, there has been poor behaviour within some businesses—but it does not follow that we need some sort of global super watchdog as some groups were suggesting. Each country has a duty to ensure that its statutory authorities and office holders, as well as the private sector, obey the rules of good governance. The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) certainly provides rules that US owned companies need to obey when operating internationally. The recently commissioned Uhrig Review of Australian Commonwealth Statutory Authorities provides another example. To repeat the comment made by Leigh Clifford, CEO of Rio Tinto—those countries who do not practice good governance and observe the rule of law will simply miss out, because business will not invest there. I have no idea whether there will be a 'Rio + 20'
or '+ 25'; but, given our penchant for anniversaries, there most
likely will be. I do not expect to be there, but I wonder whether
we will be looking back at Johannesburg and saying: this is where
it all started. History may well judge that the Johannesburg Plan
led to the first real global effort to do something at last…or
it may not—but I remain optimistic. |
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