Annan issues plea to world leaders

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed more than 100 world leaders to the World Summit today with a plea for them to work together to help the poor and rescue the world’s struggling environment.

“Let us not be deceived when we look at a clear blue sky into thinking that all is well. All is not well,” he said.

Conjuring up the “cries for help of those 13 million souls” facing starvation in southern Africa, Annan told the leaders that failure to take decisive action would have too high a cost.

“Let us stop being economically defensive and start being politically courageous,” he said.

The summit in Johannesburg aims to agree on a plan to turn promises made at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio into reality.

But negotiations over a final plan of action have been painstaking.

Bleary-eyed negotiators worked into the early hours of the morning today trying to hammer out the last details before the heads of state took the stage.

Negotiators were upbeat after compromises were reached in three key areas: climate change, trade and sanitation.

“The process is not just about approving text. It is about working with developing countries that look to us for concrete action,” said Undersecretary of State Paula Dobriansky, head of the US delegation. “Failure is not an option.”

Diplomats said one contentious issue was resolved over the weekend, when negotiators settled on wording to address the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, which the US 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”.

Steve Sawyer, climate director for Greenpeace, tempered his enthusiasm, calling it “a tremendous achievement in this process because basically it does not go backwards”.

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

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

They include a repeat of commitments to hold negotiations with a view to phasing out agriculture and other trade-distorting subsidies.

The last outstanding trade issue was resolved late yesterday when negotiators agreed to delete language giving the WTO precedence over multilateral environment agreements, diplomats said.

“There is a sense of euphoria among the delegates that they have been able to settle this very difficult issue,” said Lucian Hudson, a spokesman for the British delegation. “We are nearly there.”

And early today, negotiators added a commitment to halve the 2 billion people living without sanitation by 2015, diplomats said.

The United States has resisted including new targets and timetables in the action plan, arguing the way to get results is through concrete projects - not paper agreements.

Negotiators also agreed to include wording emphasising the need for good governance to achieve sustainable development, but did not make it a condition for receiving aid as advocated by the US, diplomats said.

At the heads of state meeting, South African President Thabo Mbeki said leaders must not be afraid of a better, but unknown, future.

“Surely there is no one among us who thinks that billions in the world should continue to be condemned to poverty, to underdevelopment and the denial of human dignity,” Mbeki said.

Later, five children appealed on behalf of the world’s youth for the gathered leaders to be able to look themselves in the mirror and say they have preserved the future for the children.

“Don’t walk off and forget about the challenges. We finally challenge you the leaders of the world to accomplish them,” they said in unison.