Earth Summit produced 290,000 tonnes carbon dioxide
Date: 09-Sep-02
Country: SOUTH AFRICA
The Gauteng provincial government set up the scheme, encouraging governments and environmental groups alike to pay into a novel fund to compensate for the pollution caused by flying to South Africa, using electricity and driving around.
The organisers estimated that a delegate travelling from the United States, for example, would pay about $100 to offset the 10 tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted by flying to and staying in Johannesburg.
Responding to the announcement that only 40,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide had been offset, a spokesman for the Greening the WSSD Initiative said "We would have liked (the total) to be higher, but it is a completely voluntary thing.
"It is just getting started. It is something that we hope will become more popular and more accepted," he said.
The fund will put the money raised into environmentally friendly schemes ranging from solar water heating to tree planting and improving energy efficiency in buildings.
Many environmentalists labelled the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held over the last 10 days, a waste of time and criticised what they saw as the waste and excessive consumption associated with the gathering.
