Delegates fail to agree on political declaration

THE UN special session to review progress since the 1992 Earth Summit late last night failed to reach a consensus among the 170-plus countries taking part on a political declaration to mark the end of their deliberations.

After two weeks of excruciating negotiations, the gulf between various caucus groups was so wide on such crucial issues as climate change, forests and aid for developing countries that it proved impossible to agree on the declaration.

Entrenched positions forced negotiators to "bin" the eight-page draft declaration, writing off countless hours of diplomatic efforts. This, in itself, was being seen as a testament to the failure of the UN General Assembly's special session.

Negotiations were continuing on the text of a longer document reviewing the implementation of Agenda 21, the blueprint for sustainable development agreed at Rio. But the outcome was widely seen as a major setback. Indeed, some environmental groups and even diplomats were openly questioning whether it was worthwhile to hold the session at all.

Bleary-eyed diplomats and some ministers continued their talks on the 54-page document until 5 a.m. yesterday and resumed again later in the morning, with a significant amount of the text still in brackets, indicating that agreement had yet to be reached.

Among the items later dropped were EU proposals for an aviation fuel tax and a 15 per cent cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2010 as well as a proposal from developing countries that the UN target of 0.7 per cent of GNP for overseas development aid should be met by 2002.

Divisions over whether there should be an international convention on forests, which are still being cut or burned at an alarming rate, were resolved by a compromise formula proposed by the Netherlands, which currently holds the EU presidency.

Outstanding contentious issues were left over to further meetings - notably the Inter-Governmental Panel on Forests and the Third Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, scheduled for

Kyoto in December.

Given that the general assembly's special session was meant to send a strong signal to the Kyoto meeting, at which targets to reduce carbon dioxide emissions are to be finalised, the outcome was described as a "disaster" by environmentalists.

EU diplomats were incensed by the intransigence of oil-producing states such as Saudi Arabia and by a surprising last-minute intervention by Japan to block even a watered-down formula proposed late last night.

Mr Kevin Dunnion, chairman of Friends of the Earth International, said this represented a "scandalous betrayal" of the promises made in Rio. "The political will demonstrated here is entirely inadequate to meet the challenges of sustainable development".

However, the prospects for agreement on a protocol in Kyoto, committing the world's industrialised countries to cut their "green-house gas" emissions, were given a mild boost by President Clinton's pledge that the US would come on board.

There has been a divided reaction to Mr Clinton's speech to the general assembly. Mr Adam Werbach, who heads the Sierra Club, which is the largest environmental group in the US, complained that the president had failed to set any specific targets.

Friends of the Earth International said that unless Mr Clinton took "tough action" to reduce the "massive contribution" to climate change made by the US he would "go down in history as the president who failed the 21st century".

The Global Climate Coalition of oil, coal and motor industries welcomed the president's "slightly more cautious" approach to climate change, while Greenpeace was impressed by his pledge to install solar panels on one million roofs.