Summit upbeat as heads of state arrive

Negotiators were upbeat today about the prospect of achieving further deals on tackling world poverty and the environment as heads of state prepared to join the Earth Summit in Johannesburg.

“ We have absolutely no choice. We must deliver,” Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said.

The 10-day conference, which started last Monday, aims to agree on a plan to turn promises made at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio into reality.

Diplomats said one contentious issue was resolved late Saturday, when negotiators settled on wording to address the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, which the United States has refused to sign.

The agreed text says nations that have ratified Kyoto “strongly urge” states that have not done so to ratify it in “a timely manner.”

“This is very encouraging,” said Danish Environment Minister Hans Christian Schmidt, whose country holds the EU presidency.

Environmentalists also welcomed the agreement. Steve Sawyer, climate director for Greenpeace, called it “a tremendous achievement in this process because basically it doesn’t go backward.”

“It’s about the only thing in this text that doesn’t,” he added.

Negotiators also reached compromises on trade that largely stick to language agreed to at a World Trade Organisation meeting in Doha, Qatar.

The main outstanding issue was whether to include language giving the WTO precedence over multilateral environment agreements, diplomats said today.

Delegates have now agreed more than 95% of the 70-odd page plan, but a number of key issues remain unresolved, summit Secretary-General Nitin Desai said.

Negotiators, who worked until 3am today, were back in closed-door meetings a few hours later to settle remaining differences over renewable energy, finance, trade and sanitation.

The European Union opposes language advanced by poor countries on eliminating agricultural subsidies, while developing nations have sided with the United States against setting targets on renewable energy sources.

The EU and other countries are also pushing for a commitment to halve the number of people without access to sanitation by 2015.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, representing the 15-nation EU, said the goal was feasible.

“We have the technology and the talent, and I would also say we have the money,” he said.

But the US has resisted including any new targets and timetables in the action plan, arguing the way to get results is through concrete projects – not paper agreements.

The US also is at odds with many developing countries because of its insistence that good governance be a requirement for receiving aid.

With governments increasingly cash-strapped, the summit has emphasised the role public-private partnerships can play in alleviating poverty and protecting the environment.

“We’ve all realised that governments can’t do it alone. We live in an era of partnerships,” UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told government and corporate leaders at a series of “Business Day” events.

Israel and Jordan announced a partnership of their own, the largest ever between the two countries, a $800m pipeline intended to save the shrinking Dead Sea.

Both governments also appealed for international assistance to fund the project that will take three to five years to complete.

More than 50 world leaders were expected in South Africa by tonight, with the number climbing to 109 before the summit ends Wednesday.

Outside the summit, a group of protesters demonstrated against the increasingly authoritarian rule of Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, who arrived in South Africa on Saturday.