WSSD-BRITAIN: The Accent is on Implementation

By Sanjay Suri Reprint | | Print |

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Aug 15 2002 (IPS) - Britain is looking to make the World Summit on Sustainable Development a forum to push for implementation of existing agreements more than creating new ones.

“There is no shortage of agreements and texts, but there is not a very good record of turning these into delivery,” says John Ashton, head of environmental policy, a newly created department with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office .

The summit, which is due to be held in Johannesburg from August 26 to September 4 should seek to “join up the different bits of international processes,” says Ashton. “There is too much cynicism about multilateralism. The summit must show that it can work.”

At Rio “there was the idea that if the right principles can be agreed upon, the rest would happen naturally,” Ashton says. But the emphasis now will be on “delivery through new partnerships between government, business and civil society.”

The British delegation will nevertheless propose several new measures to be announced at the Johannesburg summit.

In what is expected to be an innovative proposal, the British delegation will come up with a new code for “sustainable investment”. A committee from the City of London, the name given to the commercial and financial hub of London, has been working on this proposal for several months.

The British delegation to be led by Prime Minister Tony Blair, will also announce an additional contribution to the global environment fund.

Some of Britain’s pending issues with the European Union (EU) over distribution of development aid are also set to surface at the summit. Minister for International Development Clare Short, who will be going to Johannesburg, has strongly criticised present patterns of distribution of aid through the EU.

“Clare Short thinks more of this aid should go to the poorest countries rather than the Mediterranean and Maghreb region,” says Adrian Davis, head of environment policy at the Department for International Development. “We believe this aid should be made more effective in its delivery and disbursement, and we are trying to work with the relevant agencies in Brussels to improve that.”

Disbursement of aid will be a critical issue for Britain after it raised its aid to 0.4 per cent of its Gross National Income (GNI) ahead of the World Summit on Sustainable Development. The aid budget is set to be increased to 7.5 billion dollars a year by 2006. “We are looking at an increase in this aid by 8 per cent a year over the next three years,” says Davis.

The British delegation is also seeking a new look at the 350 billion dollars of annual subsidies to agriculture in the developed world. Britain is not seeking to wipe off these subsidies “but we would like to see this spent on things that are sustainable,” says Sheila McCabe, head of environmental protection at the Department of Environment.

The British are also proposing some addition to the Millennium Development Goals, which seek to improve the quality of life in the developing world on several fronts by 2015. “We will propose further goals like halving the number of people without access to proper sanitation by 2015,” Ashton says. Other proposals will cover promotion of renewable energy and protection of biodiversity.

Among the most controversial proposals to which the British are offering cautious support is the move towards sustainable consumption. “There is lots of evidence on how inefficiently we use natural resources,” says McCabe. A programme agreed by EU ministers proposes moves towards sustainable consumption through measures such as better use of water for agriculture, recycling, re-use of goods and reducing packaging waste.

“But a cut-down in lifestyle is difficult because no government likes to take such measures,” says McCabe. “It is a difficult question, but it has to be asked,” she says. “This is the responsibility particularly of developed countries.”

The British government has signalled keen interest in the Johannesburg summit. Blair was the first leader outside South Africa to confirm participation – his confirmation was communicated on March 6 last year, British officials point out. But the officials are seeking also to play down too many expectations from the summit.

“There is no magic bullet,” says Ashton. Questions raised at Rio are being raised again, and will be raised yet again ten years from now, he says. But he believes new partnerships should help deliver targets on the ground. “Many of the details can be worked out only in trade negotiations but Johannesburg will be able to shine the spotlight on them,” he says.

There is new realisation on the need for implementation, and of several issues like the relation of trade with sustainable development, says McCabe. This should lead to “new policies that get people to work together.”