Johannesburg, Sept 2: After two days of haggling between the US, Japan
and OPEC countries on the one hand and the European Union (EU) on the other, governments
have reached an agreement over the wording of the final document of the WSSD summit, which
now says that countries have to act "with a sense of urgency" to increase the
world’s share of renewable energy sources, without setting any specific target. The
text also asks countries to phase out energy subsidies that prevent sustainable
development.EU negotiators, who have so far been insisting on the setting of specific
targets, are now being accused of yielding to the US. Activists are highly disappointed at
the watering down of what may have been a promising deal to set firm timetables and
targets to encourage renewable wind and solar energies in developing countries.
"The Americans, Saudis and Japanese have got what they wanted. It’s worse
than we could have imagined," said Steve Sawyer, climate policy director of
Greenpeace.
The UN' summit secretary-general Nitin Desai declared the agreement a "positive
step". The final text must now be formally approved by the plenary session.
One major target set by the summit is to halve the number of people without basic
sanitation by 2015. Targets have also been set to replenish biological resources like fish
and forests.
Matt Phillips of the environmentalist group Friends of the Earth said: "It is very
disappointing to see renewables being abandoned at this stage in the deal. Sanitation is
important but for sustainable development poor communities need clean, efficient
energy."
