Global Policy Forum

By Thabo Mbeki, Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Goran Persson

The bounty of the earth is not inexhaustible. The oceans do not contain an infinite number of fish. Much of what is once destroyed by overexploitation or greed is gone forever. Earth sustains life and is our nurturing resource.

Today we abuse Earth's resources. We feed on portions that belong to unborn generations. Our children's children risk entering this world already bearing the debt of their forefathers.

It is not an option but an imperative that we "meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs," as the Brundtland report put it in 1987.

Thirty years after the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, and 10 years after the Rio de Janeiro Conference on Environment and Development, the World Summit on Sustainable Development is being held in Johannesburg from Aug. 26 to Sept. 4. The year 2002 will therefore be historically linked to 1972 and 1992, and will become a new turning point in international awareness of the environment as a global issue.

Is the world ready for this new challenge? Concern over degradation of the environment led to the historic 1972 conference in Stockholm. The result was a permanent place for the environment on the global agenda, the beginning of the era of multilateralism in the protection of the environment and increased popular awareness. There was recognition of the fact that there is no individual future, but that we all share "only one Earth."

Protection of the environment is a noble endeavor in itself. But the survival of the environment is also the strategic basis of human survival. The question is therefore principally about human welfare.

The protection of Earth must go hand in hand with measures to fight poverty and enhance human dignity and security. Development and environment are interlinked.

It is indeed too much to ask a mother whose child is dying of thirst today to express concern about the health of wetlands. It is indeed too much to ask a man whose family is starving to death today to concern himself with the environmental consequences of his fishing practices.

It is indeed too much to ask a woman who needs to cook a meal for her hungry family today to be concerned about the long-term sustainability of her firewood gathering practices or about climate change. Since 1990, 10 million more people have joined the ranks of the poor every year. More than 1.1 billion of our fellow human beings are undernourished, and 1.5 billion people live in water-scarce areas. And we know that in some parts of Africa the desert advances at a rate of 10 kilometers a year.

The gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen. All this at a time when the world is enjoying an unprecedented level of global productivity and capital accumulation unleashed by the forces of globalization during the last decade.

To watch passively as poverty increases, the wealth and information gaps widen and environmental degradation continues is not only a human and moral failure. It is also an enormous waste of resources - especially human resources, the most important factor for sustainable development. In this context, empowerment of women and a gender perspective are crucial components. No one can afford to let this situation continue.

We are convinced that far from being a burden, investments and policies that promote sustainable development offer an exceptional opportunity. Economically they help to build new markets and create jobs. Socially they bring people in from the margins. And politically they reduce tensions over resources that could lead to violence.

The Rio Earth summit in 1992 forged a global consensus on the inescapable link between the protection of the environment and social and economic development. The principles of sustainable development were launched. This link should be translated into practice through collective action based on concepts and instruments that promote new public policies at both domestic and international levels. The spirit of Rio led to a global consensus on a program for sustainable development, as well as on the Rio declaration and on the conventions on climate change and biological diversity.

The years following the Earth summit brought far-reaching multilateral environmental agreements. There was even greater public awareness and concern. We need to continue to build on these achievements. We have answered the question of what to do, now we need to focus our efforts on how to do it in order to move from words to action.

The fundamental challenge before us is to develop a paradigm that enhances the sustainable use of natural resources and at the same time reverses unsustainable patterns of production and consumption. These changes will require that we build a partnership recognizing that our common responsibility toward global sustainability must accommodate striking imbalances among nations.

It is no longer possible for each of us to focus solely on our own concerns. As the world develops rapidly, global public goods cannot be monopolized by a few. No matter how large a country is, it is still small in view of the challenge before us.

Sustainability and growth should be terms of the same equation, since there can be no sustainability without a financial basis, nor a financial basis without market access, nor market access unaccompanied by a perspective of solidarity, which will give rise to a type of growth that benefits all.

Sustainable development will be able to trigger modernization only once it is endowed with systemic conditions for competitiveness. The Johannesburg world summit is the opportunity for countries of the world to form a global partnership for the protection of the environment and for social and economic development. A partnership not simply in the donor-recipient paradigm but one to which we all contribute.

Only a global partnership between governments, business and civil society gives us the power to meet the challenge.

The basis of the global partnership must be an action-oriented implementation plan with clear targets and timetables. Such a United Nations program would be an immediate and tangible contribution to the quest for global peace and security.

The global partnership must be based on plans and commitments that would constitute a program of action to implement the UN Millennium Development Goals, which include improved access to water, sanitation, energy, health care and food security. It should include concrete measures to promote sustainable patterns of consumption and production.

Concerned citizens everywhere would justifiably say that there is enough capital, technology and expertise to achieve these goals of poverty eradication. In the same way, we have the necessary knowledge and resources to tackle overconsumption, in-efficient use of resources, pollution and other environmental problems.

The commitment of the world, in the United Nations Millennium Declaration, to "assist Africans in their struggle for lasting peace, poverty eradication and sustainable development" will feature prominently at the Johannesburg summit. The New Partnership for Africa's Development, NEPAD, provides an important framework for cooperation in the region for achieving this.

We do not start from scratch - there are positive developments to build on. One is the broad consensus that exists today on the goals for development. Another is the greater participation we have from civil society and business.

We also need to build on the Doha development agenda and on the consensus reached in Monterrey on financing for development.

The aim is to help make globalization a positive force for all, one which ensures broad economic and political stability. We and our fellow heads of state and government, representing the nations of the world, together with representatives of all sectors of humanity, are gathering this week in Johannesburg. A quantum leap in the struggle to eliminate poverty and move toward a sustainable future is within reach.

We the hosts of the Stockholm, Rio de Janeiro and Johannesburg conferences call on governments and citizens of the world to seize the opportunity of the World Summit on Sustainable Development to prove that a new paradigm is possible, and that sustainable development can be a reality for all.

May Johannesburg become the start of a new era of international cooperation and global solidarity.

President Mbeki of South Africa, President Cardoso of Brazil and Prime Minister Persson of Sweden contributed this comment to the International Herald Tribune.

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