World Leaders Declare Commitment to Build Humane, Caring Global Society

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, September 03, 2002

World Leaders Declare Commitment to Build Humane, Caring Global Society

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World leaders at the Earth Summit Monday declared their commitment to build a humane and caring global society of 6 billion population on the earth at the high level segment of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD).

The leaders pledged to take concerted actions for the achievement of sustainable development and assured a joint responsibility to advance and strengthen the three inseparable pillars of the protection of the environment, social, and economic development at the local, national, regional and global levels.

As president of the WSSD summit, South African President Thabo Mebki said at the opening address that the heads of state, government and delegation, representatives of civil society and business leaders should take the necessary decisions at the summit with a concrete plan of action.

He said: "the billions of people of the world on whose mandate we occupy our seats, expect a very clear and unambiguous answer to the question whether we are ready and able to respond to the pressing challenges of sustainable development."

The world is facing immense and daunting challenges. Since the Rio Earth Summit 10 years ago, the global environment has been on constant decline. Nature is mutilated and overexploited while humanity is suffering.

The people on the planet are now faced with such major challenges as global warming, desertification, losses of biodiversity, poverty, and the spread of AIDS.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in his address:"Here in Johannesburg, we must do more. The focus from now on mustbe on implementing the many agreements that have been reached. That includes the Millennium Development Goals. Sustainability is one of those goals."

"Sustainable development need not wait for tomorrow's technological breakthroughs. The policies, the science and the green technologies at our disposal today can begin to do the job," he said.

He said that with concerted action in five areas, water, energy, health, agriculture and biodiversity, progress could be far quicker than is commonly believed.

Han Seung-soo, president of the fifty-sixth session of the UN General Assembly, said: "We are trying to set ambitious goals. Therefore it is only fitting that we should cooperate, we should combine our efforts to determine how we will achieve them."

Addressing more than 100 heads of state and government, French President Jacques Chirac echoed: "It is time to open our eyes. Alarms are sounding across all the continents."

"This entails our collective responsibility. First and foremost the responsibility of the developed countries, who are frontrunners in terms of history, power and their consumption levels."

He said: "A solemn call should go out from Johannesburg to all the countries in the world, especially the leading industrialized countries, to ratify and apply the Kyoto Protocol."

The world leaders also pledged to implement a global sustainable development program that gives absolute priority to bridging the deep fault lines that divide human society into the rich and the poor.

The European Union made a commitment to combat poverty, to protect the environment and to contribute to ensuring free trade and sustainable development.

The EU has agreed to free access for all goods, with the exception of arms, from the least developed countries.

In the years from 2002 to 2006, the EU will increase its development assistance with more than 22 billion euros (about 21 billion US dollars), and from 2006 onwards with more than 9 billion euros (about 8.7 billion dollars) annually.

Majority of the world's people living in poverty are in Asia, particularly in rural areas. However, the poverty rate is highest in sub-Saharan Africa, where almost half of the population live on less than one dollar per day. Most of the decline in the poverty rate in the 1990s has been in East Asia.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair stressed at the summit that Britain was committed to support the world's development programs, adding that his country would spent one billion pounds (about 1.55billion dollars) every year on committed aid to Africa.

German Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schroder announced three initiatives in the massive development of renewable energies as part of Germany's efforts to achieve sustainable development.

He said that Germany will provide 500 million euros (about 485 million dollars) to promote cooperation on renewable energies over the next five years.

As chairman of the Group of 77 and China, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez pronounced the concerns of the countries of the South. He eloquently stated the expectations of developing countries from this summit.

Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji, heading a large delegation, is expected to deliver a speech on Tuesday.

Namibian President Sam Nujoma said that Namibia being a semi-arid country, attaches great importance to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.

He stressed an innovative drought policy underpinning the establishment of a drought fund to provide social safety net to farmers and rural peasants.

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika stressed the importance to make sure that market mechanisms take into account the need to preserve the environment, which will be twice profitable because the environment offers large investment opportunities.

Those leaders who also made speech at the meeting include Indonesian President Megawait Dorksnopuyti, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Kenya President Daniel arap Moi.

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