World Citizens See Environment in Decline - Global Survey

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS/IPS - People perceive the global environment as having worsened since the 1992 Earth Summit, a 25-nation public opinion survey reveals.

The survey, conducted late last year and released here last week, covered some 25,000 citizens worldwide and interviewed about 300 influential environmentalists.

In Argentina, about 83 percent of those polled complained that their country's environmental quality has deteriorated over the last 10 years. The corresponding figure for South Korea was 81 percent, for Russia 73 percent, for Turkey 71, for Brazil and Italy 69 percent each, for Mexico 64 and for Kazakhstan 62 percent.

Half of people surveyed across the 25 countries said they think environmental quality has deteriorated while four in 10 believed it has improved. The number of people who think the environment has greatly worsened exceeds those who think it has greatly improved two-to-one.

Conducted by the Canada-based Environics International Ltd, the survey was funded by the World Bank and released in the run-up to the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) scheduled to take place in Johannesburg, South Africa Aug 26-Sept 4.

Six in 10 experts surveyed believe that the transition to sustainable development is progressing 'too slowly to avert major, irreversible damage to human, social and ecosystem health.'

The experts say they look to the upcoming WSSD to produce 'time-bound commitments' on key environmental issues, including climate change, energy, water, and poverty eradication.

Last week, the United States rejected a proposal for time bound commitments for doubling official development assistance (ODA) to the world's poorer nations from the current 50 billion dollars to 100 billion dollars annually.

The US rejection came at a preparatory committee meeting for the upcoming International Conference on Financing for Development scheduled to take place in Mexico in March.

The proposed increase, also supported by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, was aimed at eradicating poverty globally.

Environmental experts interviewed for the survey said that poverty is not only a critical subject for WSSD but also an essential puzzle in addressing environment and global security issues.'

The overall findings of the survey also reflect the views expressed by Annan, who has complained that the international community has fallen short of its promises to prevent the deterioration of the global environment.

World leaders at the 1992 Earth Summit promised to eradicate poverty, change patterns of consumption and production, save the world's eco systems and prevent global deforestation. But most of these pledges, says Annan, have remained unfulfilled or missed their 10 year-old targets.

Doug Miller, president of Environics International, told reporters that it would be a mistake for world leaders meeting in Johannesburg to offer glowing reports of progress.

The survey, he said, found that the public will likely be critical of any self-congratulatory progress reports from governments, multilateral agencies and business.

And in order to have credibility with the public, WSSD will have to focus on new commitments and plans for action. 'There is a new sense of urgency,' he added.

Ian Johnson, the World Bank's Vice President of Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development, said that these research findings suggest it is time to lay out a long-term vision for a sustainable world, with clear and measurable objectives shared by governments, civil society and the private sector.

The survey also probed people's views on what should be the most important issues on the WSSD agenda. The majority of them pointed to poverty ahead of wars and armed conflict - a surprising result in the midst of a war on terrorism.

Citizens in Latin America and Africa (mostly notably Chileans, Brazilians and South Africans) were especially inclined to want world leaders to address poverty, while Americans and Chinese want the focus on economic stability and growth.

Europeans, on the other hand, were more concerned about addressing wars and military conflicts.

Emil Salim of Indonesia, chairman of the WSSD's Preparatory Committee, told reporters Monday: 'People are tired of talk. They want action.'

The Johannesburg summit, he said, should avoid renegotiating the programmes adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio. 'Rather, they should build on what had already been done to get at substantive matters.'

'Sustainable development must be looked at from the perspective of addressing the newly emerging issues of globalisation and technology, in order to ensure that new technology did not work against the environment,' Salim said.

'The summit outcome must be a statement of hope. It must show how humans can overcome difficulties and thereby build the confidence to do so,' he added.