* World Summit on Sustainable

Development
* The World Summit on Sustainable
Development, WSSD or ONG Earth Summit 2002
took place in Johannesburg, South Africa, from
26 August to 4 September 2002. It was
convened to discuss sustainable development
by the United Nations. WSSD gathered a
number of leaders from business and non-
governmental organizations, 10 years after the
first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
* Tens of thousands participated in this World
Summit including a World Summit on
Sustainable Development bureau appointed by
the UN, heads of State and Government,
national delegates and leaders from non-
governmental organizations (NGOs),
businesses, and other major groups. The
summit focused the world's attention toward
meeting difficult challenges, including
improving people's lives and conserving natural
resources, with ever-increasing demands for
food, water, shelter, sanitation, energy, health
services and economic security.
* Water and Sanitation:

* Governments agreed to halve the number of

people lacking clean drinking water and basic
sanitation by 2015.
* This agreement was perhaps the most positive
outcome of the Summit.

*Outcome Of The
Summit
* Energy:

* Governments agreed in principle to take action to help the poor gain

access to affordable energy
* Yet, there were no specific targets on things like boosting renewable
and "green" sources such as solar or wind power, just wording to
"substantially increase" the global share of renewable energy.
* Various Oil-Producing and Exporting Countries (OPEC) nations and the
United States opposed targets while Europe and various environmental
and development organizations wanted them.
* Definition of renewables also caused a stir because some wanted
nuclear and hydro-electric power to be included in this definition
while others did not.
* Environmental organizations in particular did not like the outcome.

*Outcome Of The
Summit
* Global Warming:
* The agreement referred to the need to ratify the
Kyoto Protocol, though various organizations and
nations were hoping for more concrete plans.
* Russia and some other nations announced they
would ratify the Kyoto Protocol. This was seen as
positive, because earlier some had implied that
they might not.
* Had they not, with the U.S. already rejecting the
protocol, Kyoto might have headed for collapse.

*Outcome Of The
Summit
*Biodiversity and Natural Resources:

*Nations agreed that by 2010, the rate at which extinctions of rare

plants and animals are occurring should be cut.
*There was commitment to restore fisheries to their maximum
sustainable yields by 2015;
*To establish a representative network of marine protected areas by
2012;
*To improve developing countries' access to environmentally-sound
alternatives to ozone depleting chemicals by 2010.
*While these were on the positive side, World Wildlife Fund, one of
the world's leading conservation organizations felt the Summit
didn't do enough.

*Outcome Of The
Summit
* Health:

* Attempts to link women's rights and health services to human

rights was opposed by some nations and religious groups.
* There was agreement that recognition that access to healthcare
be consistent with human rights, and "cultural and religious
values".
* Various groups criticized the U.S., the Vatican and some
developing countries that tried to oppose this stronger linkage
due to issues around women's rights, abortion issues, etc.
* Countries agreed to phase out, by 2020, the use and production
of chemicals that harm human health and the environment.

*Outcome Of The
Summit
* The results of the Johannesburg Summit have been criticized in
subsequent years as being too vague and for setting weaker
goals than those agreed upon in previous summits. The
resolutions passed at the summit also lack the provisions for
substantial enforcement, making it difficult to assess what
progress was actually made. NGOs such as the Global Peoples
Forum and Friends of the Earth have set forth
recommendations to strengthen the Johannesburg goals, and
The Earth Charter Initiative has proposed an Earth Charter as a
replacement for the current political declaration. Whether or
not the UN decides to make changes to the original
Johannesburg documents, the real impact of the 2002 summit
should become more clear in the coming decade.