India seeks long-term action plan at Rio10+

NEW DELHI: India and other developing countries in the Group 77 will push for the acceptance of the draft implementation agenda for sustainable development in its entirety at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) to be held at Johannesburg between August 28 and September 3.The draft plan catering to Agenda 21 agreed to at Rio, has been prepared over a period of one year. But at the last meeting in Bali in May-June, serious differences arose between the North and the South with the developed world refusing to commit to several key issues in continuing sustainable development efforts. Consequently, this plan of action or Type I is full of bracketed portions, indicating lack of consensus. ''The claim is that 75% of the document has been agreed to, but the fact is that all the relevant portions are bracketed. What is not, is meaningless...'' says Sunita Narain of the Centre for Science and Environment.The bracketed portions include the all important clause on common but differentiated responsibilities. This implies a multilateral approach to sustainable development with all countries shouldering some burden, but developed countries are opposing it. Secondly, there is no consensus on setting deadlines to achieve goals.The targets too have become contentious with the US and Japan sticking to those derived from the Millennium Development goals (like alleviating poverty, providing drinking water) while the EU wants to embrace other issues like sanitation and energy too. Thirdly, developing countries feel the need for new and additional financial resources to continue sustainable development efforts and expect the developed countries to pitch in, whereas developed countries are shifting the onus on the plea that there is a lack of good governance. Last but not the least is the relevance of bilateral agreements in a multilateral process like the UN summit. It is feared that instead of parting with the required official development assistance(ODA), developed countries are forcing so-called public-private partnerships on the developing world. This leaves the governments of developing countries out of the loop.Here India has decided to demand clear guidelines. All that exists now is a ''registration format'' which would at best record an expression of intent, with no detailing whatsoever. WSSD chair and former Indonesian environment minister Emil Salim, who is in town, has not given any indication if it would be changed.According to top government sources, India would therefore insist on endorsement of partnerships by recipient governments. In the process it can ensure that the projects funded by partnerships fall in the ''priority area''. (Typically priority areas would include food, energy, water, agriculture, irrigation). It would help the government track the extent of resources received, instead of being left high and dry with announcements of ''hundreds of partnerships.'' It would also guard against MNCs walking away with traditional knowledge and bioresources through agreements with deceitful agencies. To skirt regional disparities , India would push for a threshold value for monetary transfers.

India seeks long-term action plan at Rio10+

India and other developing countries in the Group 77 will push for the acceptance of the draft implementation agenda for sustainable development in its entirety at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) to be held at Johannesburg betwe...

More from our Partners

Popular Categories

Hot on Web

In Case you missed it

Top Searched Companies

Latest News

Download ET APP

Follow us on

become a member