UK assailed at summit for downplaying green agenda
Date: 02-Sep-02
Country: SOUTH AFRICA
British development minister Clare Short told Reuters on Wednesday that prioritising the environment at the U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development would set back poverty reduction in the poorest nations and divide the world in two.
But Friends of the Earth International (FOEI) said her remarks had infuriated green campaigners from poor countries.
"The minister has got it wrong. We in the South need a green agenda in order to survive," said FOEI chairman Ricardo Navarro, who comes from El Salvador.
"Water, soil and forests are being degraded and people are becoming impoverished as a result."
"Ms Short has once again shown her arrogance in claiming to speak on behalf of developing countries. Northern ministers like Ms Short should concentrate on ending the environmental damage inflicted by their own countries," he added in a statement.
Short said the last such meeting in Rio had focused mainly on environmental conservation and that this was not sufficient.
"Of course you should look after the forests, but if you say 'We can't have all these people who live in the forests wanting a better life,' that won't do," she said.
The Johannesburg summit aims to revive decade-old pledges made at the 1992 Rio meeting to pursue environmentally friendly prosperity - focusing on the areas of water and sanitation, health, energy, food security and bio-diversity.
Much of the contention at the meeting has focused on whether states should agree hard targets for reducing the environmental impact of their activities, but many campaigners are also calling for freer trade and a people-focused agenda.
"People or Pandas?" and "Trade not Aid" were amongst slogans on banners waved at a protest march.
