Enviromental and aid groups have branded the action plan for the world's future adopted by the Earth Summit an abject failure, but UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said "you must not expect a conference like this to produce miracles".
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) said the 65-page Plan of Implementation was gutted by compromises which left big business free to degrade the environment and exploit workers, but politicians defended it as the best result that could be expected when so many competing national interests were at stake.
"A couple of things were reached on sanitation and marine issues [during the summit]. But apart from that, a pretty disappointing setback considering the state of problems facing the world," said Mr Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth.
"In a nutshell in terms of what we've got to, this is quite a large disappointment on this last day of the summit," he told a press conference which also included WWF, Oxfam and the Third World Network.
"There were very few new targets and very long [time-frames on] implementation," he added.
Mr Juniper said discussions on major issues, such as climate change, did not look at aspects like renewable technology, a major lobbying point for some of the environmental groups.
"This summit was supposed to be on sustainability. Instead it turned into a trade negotiation," said Ms Jennifer Morgan, WWF's climate director.
Mr Andrew Hewett of Oxfam said that despite commitments made 10 years ago at the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, there had been a "backslide" in promises in Johannesburg: "Again we saw no action at this summit."
Oxfam commended NGOs at the summit, saying "if it wasn't for [their] concerted efforts and certain last-minute interventions of certain more progressive countries, the text would have been far worse."
AFP