By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 25 2001 (IPS)

Latin America and the Caribbean proposed Wednesday that the design of “a new globalisation process” based on equitable, sustainable development be adopted as the theme of next year’s World Summit on Sustainable Development.

The proposal forms part of the Action Platform approved at the regional preparatory conference that ended Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro. The 79-point document outlines the position that Latin America and the Caribbean will take to the summit, which is to be held in September 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

“Towards a new globalisation process guaranteeing equal, inclusive and sustainable development” was the proposal approved by the two-day meeting of foreign and environment ministers from 36 countries.

The participants underlined the need for “greater coherence and coordination between environmental, social and economic policies.”

Countries of the developing South will not achieve sustainable development until “they have access to adequate financing and technology transfer,” and their products are able to enter the world’s biggest markets, says the Action Platform.

But the text does not reflect the agreement reached by the region’s environment ministers, who met Monday and Tuesday in their own regional forum, to promote the swap of foreign debt for investment in environmental projects as a method of financing the environmentally sustainable economic and social development of the region.

According to Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Lafer, the environment ministers defined actions in their area at a national and regional level, but the position to be taken at next year’s global summit – known as Rio+10 – was an issue to be addressed at the diplomatic level.

The Action Platform approved by Wednesday’s “diplomatic” meeting in Rio de Janeiro fails to refer to the reduction of the foreign debt in favour of the environment, one of whose loudest proponents is Brazilian Environment Minister José Sarney (Jr).

The document merely notes that the debt burden “continues to weaken strategies aimed at mobilising resources for sustainable development,” and says governments should “consider the possibility of creating mechanisms designed to ease the burden on heavily indebted countries.”

It also suggests “the creation of new and novel financial instruments” to boost multilateral financing of sustainable development programmes.

In concrete terms, Latin America and the Caribbean “will insist on fulfillment of the commitments” assumed in 1992 – a reference to the Earth Summit held that year in Rio de Janeiro.

The region will also demand that the industrialised North live up to its pledge of earmarking 0.7 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to development aid for the South, according to a resolution approved by the United Nations General Assembly which has never been fulfilled.

“There are no new developments regarding development aid,” Lafer acknowledged.

The minister also stressed that the region, as a united front, supports the 1997 Kyoto Protocol that set targets for the reduction of greenhouse gases, which the United States has failed to ratify.

The ministers admitted that poverty and deterioration of the environment had worsened in the world and in the region over the past 10 years. “The unsustainable forms of production and consumption and negative impact of certain commercial and financial mechanisms” are an obstacle to sustainable development, they declared.

The effects of subsidies that distort global trade in farm products have also had effects “that are not at all constructive” for the environment, said Lafer, who maintained, for example, that mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) was caused by the European Union’s insistence on protecting its livestock, shelling out subsidies, and giving cattle feed of animal origin.

“A strong consensus” was reached at the two regional meetings this week in Rio de Janeiro in reconfirmation of the principles of the 1992 Earth Summit and later international agreements on climate change, biodiversity and biosafety, Ricardo Sánchez, regional director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), told IPS.

Environmentally and socially sustainable development requires “a renewal of the debate on the foreign debt,” a reduction of “the volatility of a global economy which has turned into a casino”, and the creation of the conditions for a more equal society, said Sánchez.

All countries must promote better internal distribution of wealth, but rich nations will have to contribute to such efforts, he added. Sustainable development cannot be achieved if the brain drain that has already “carried away half a million Latin American university graduates” continues due to a lack of jobs, he concluded.

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