Leaders push for final summit agreement

WORLD leaders fly into Johannesburg today as part of a final push to secure agreement in the Earth Summit talks.

Negotiating teams made major progress over the weekend and say they are now close to finalising a deal on how to uplift the poor and save the environment.

But environmentalists say the draft agreement does not make any progress on commitments made by nations a decade ago at the Rio de Janeiro summit.

"The contents of the agreement are so watered down as to be meaningless," said Irish Green party chairman John Gormley.

But Environment Minister Martin Cullen, who is leading a 30-strong Irish Government team, said he was happy with the progress being made.

"We are in the final strait now. We've 100 meters to go but, of course the final 10 can always be the most difficult," he said.

"Rio was big on aspirations but Johannesburg is about targets. If we get these in the final text, it will have been a worthwhile experience."

One of the last remaining major obstacles centres on renewable energy, such as solar and wind power, which was dividing the European Union and the United States last night.

The EU wants 15% of all energy to be renewable for developed countries by 2015, but the US and Arab states are resisting this and say these broad targets are not the way forward.

Ireland yesterday signed a letter with six other EUcountries to oppose attempts by some nations to have nuclear energy included in this renewable energy target.

Agreement has already been reached on issues such as promoting sustainable fishing by 2015, phasing out harmful chemicals and limiting greenhouse gas emissions.

Talks to phase out controversial subsidies which enrich western farmers and penalise the poor by blocking them from entering lucrative markets have essentially been abandoned, much to the relief of the Irish Government.

The final agreement is expected to reiterate what was agreed at the recent World Trade Organisation meeting in Doha, where the EU promised merely to enter negotiations "with a view to phasing out all forms of export subsidies and market-distorting domestic supports".

Ireland was one of the key countries fighting attempts to remove subsidies and its delegation included two IFA members and Department of Agriculture officials.

But the Green's Mr Gormley, who is part of the Irish delegation, said all the agreements and targets reached were littered with weasel words such as "where possible" which rendered any final deal meaningless.

"This is essentially business as usual. This summit is about gloablisation, not sustainable development. The governments don't seem to care anymore," he said.

With environmentalists warning time is running out to save mankind from itself, UN chief Kofi Annan and his South African host, President Thabo Mbeki, visited prehistoric caves regarded as a "cradle of humanity" at Sterkfontein, near Johannesburg.

Mr Annan was to leave a plaque at the site bearing the legend: "The lives our distant ancestors led here millions of years ago hold a clear lesson for us today while their footprints on nature were small, ours have become dangerously large.