Environmenalists Want Promises
" The governing council of the Cartagena conference said
there had been progress on U.N. conventions on climate
change, biological diversity and desertification, but steps
remain to be taken at the coming summit to ensure
agreements are put into force."
Kept
Fri Feb 15, 9:27 PM ET
By RICARDO MALDONADO, Associated Press Writer
CARTAGENA, Colombia - Wrapping up a three-day
meeting, global environmentalists Friday called for action
to counter unkept pledges by world governments to
reduce global warming and protect the environment.
Environmental ministers and other officials from more
than 120 countries met in this Caribbean port city to
prepare for this summer's U.N. World Summit on
Sustainable Development, said to be the biggest U.N.
gathering ever planned.
The conference was site of a rare agreement between
Israel and the Palestinian Authority (news - web sites).
The warring sides agreed to assess the environmental
damage done in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (news -
web sites) through pollution of water supplies and waste
dumping.
"If we are to live together on this piece of land, we need
to respect the shared natural resources here," said
Yousef Yousef Abu Safiehm, the Palestinian environment
minister.
Valerie Brachya, an Israeli environmental official, said
two sides ceased contacts on such issues when violence
broke out in September 2000, and she hoped the
agreement would "renew cooperation."
On broader issues, the delegates said many pledges have
been made since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de
Janeiro, but "there remains an alarming discrepancy
between commitments and action."
"There has always existed the suspicion that they were
very good protocols, but unfortunately we can't guarantee
their application, their observance, because they are not
obligatory," Klaus Topfer, executive director of the U.N.
Environment Program, told a news conference.
The private Worldwatch Institute said recently that 1.12
billion people lack access to adequate clean water, and
that during the 1990s, carbon dioxide emissions - the
so-called greenhouse gases believed to cause global
warming - climbed more than 9 percent.
The governing council of the Cartagena conference said
there had been progress on U.N. conventions on climate
change, biological diversity and desertification, but steps
remain to be taken at the coming summit to ensure
agreements are put into force.
The gathering is set for Aug. 26-Sept. 4 in Johannesburg,
South Africa and will focus on reshaping the global
economy to make it less damaging to the environment
while spreading wealth to underdeveloped and developing
regions.
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