EU could take lead in Johannesburg

Former U.S. President Bush went to Rio for the 1992 Earth Summit, but his son won't be following in his footsteps

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Although his father attended Rio 10 years ago, U.S. President George W. Bush is not going to the Johannesburg summit later this month. Multilateral initiatives are not his thing.

But if the United States doesn't plan a major role at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, who will steer 170 nations towards an agreement that will mean anything to the billions living without clean water or energy supplies and earning less than a dollar a day?

Britain's Tony Blair, the first prime minister to sign up for the summit, says leadership will be vital. But he is unlikely to supply it.

Blair won't be at the conference very long, and the UK originally dropped its one expert environment minister from the conference delegation.

IN-DEPTH Global balance: Johannesburg Summit 2002

An embarrassed UK government only reinstated the minister, Michael Meacher, after environmental charities offered to pay his fare.

Sustainable development campaigners agree that someone must drive things on.

"The U.S., Canada and Australia have been very hesitant about showing any leadership except in terms of making sure they're not committing themselves to any new targets for action," said Sally Nicholson, head of global policy for the World Wildlife Fund.

So, with the trickiest 25 percent of the agenda yet to be agreed, there's hope that Europe, with its strong environmental tradition, will give things a push.

"It would be ideal if Europe could come in at this stage and put its weight behind the kind of progressive, long-term sustainable development policies that would be so vital to making things a success," says Danny Graymore, trade policy officer for Christian Aid.

EU's Prodi: "We will take important initiatives in the areas of water and energy. I call on others to follow our lead."

"In a way it's all to be played for."

All 15 European Union countries are implementing the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, despite the refusal of the United States to do so.

Back in July, European Commission President Romano Prodi declared: "In Johannesburg, developed and developing countries must work hand in hand to make globalisation work for everyone by agreeing on objectives and partnerships to make development sustainable and reverse environmental degradation.

"We will take important initiatives in the areas of water and energy. I call on others to follow our lead."

According to the EU, 1.2 billion people lack access to clean water and 3 billion people lack access to safe sanitation, with 2.2 million people a year, mostly children, dying from related diseases.

The EU is pushing a water initiative designed to cut in half the number of people without access to clean water by 2015, and it has allocated 1.4 billion euros ($1.4 billion) to that initiative.

On energy, the EU wants the summit to commit to ensuring that 15 percent of world energy needs are met by renewable sources by 2010, as well as increasing energy efficiency and cleaner fossil fuel technologies.

U.S. President George W. Bush will be absent, and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair will be at the summit only briefly

It is already committing 700 million euros a year to partnership programmes for energy with developing countries.

The EU is also boosting spending and seeking action at Johannesburg on health, agriculture and biodiversity projects.

"We have taken the leadership role we promised last year. This is by pushing for concrete targets and timetables," EU environment spokesman Michael Curtis said.

"We're also trying to reconcile positions on different issues such as aid and trade. As the largest provider of development aid to the Third World, and the largest trading partner for developing countries, we feel the EU is quite well-placed to play a bridging role."

The EU says the Johannesburg meeting is both an important opportunity and a heavy responsibility for world leaders, who are faced with the task of relieving poverty, improving living standards based on sustainable patterns of production and ensuring that the benefits of globalisation are shared by all.

EU leaders say they want the summit's political message to be that globalisation must be more sustainable for all. They say they also want the summit to "adopt quantifiable targets, implementation timetables and monitoring mechanisms."

But some campaigners worry that the close involvement of EU governments with business interests and multinational companies will lead to a lack of specificity in those areas, especially in increasing companies' accountability. Many countries like the UK are including representatives of multinationals on their delegations.

The EU is pushing a water initiative designed to halve the number of people without access to clean water by 2015

Christian Aid's Graymore says that while big companies provide employment, investment and research and have a major role to play in achieving sustainable development, world leaders must not let them swamp other voices.

Business associations, he says, "are all basically saying the same thing. They're all basically very pro-trade liberalisation, and they are very against any kind of regulation that would see them being held to account. These people are very influential."

The EU's Curtis counters: "We have had active contacts with civil society, with the non-governmental organisations as well as business in order to shape the EU position. It is clear that what we need in Johannesburg is a consensus. We're not going to get that just by listening to big business. We need to listen to everyone.

"But first of all we need to listen to the needs of developing countries."