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MAMO, Sweden (AFP) - The head of the UN Environment Program spoke of disappointment over progress in tackling green issues, as delegates gathered for a UNEP forum in Mamo, southern Sweden.
Conditions had not improved as much as people had expected after the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, UNEP director Klaus Toepfer said. He was speaking as 600 specialists including 80 environment ministers, several dozen nongovernmental organizations and leading industry figures mingled at the UN-sponsored meeting.
"I believe there is quite a sense of disappointment, especially towards the developing countries ... But we must be aware that the gap between developed and developing countries has broadened," he added.
Decisions on poverty and the environment had to be integrated into the globalization process in the markets, investments and companies, he added. "It is a matter of fact that globalization is mainly propelled by investors, so we are expecting responsibility from their part. We can invite them to take this responsibility but we can also make it compulsory, for example in setting a minimum standard for environment investments," he said.
In a message recorded last Friday and broadcast to delegates, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called on both the private sector and consumers to assume their responsibilities. Ecological groups attending the conference also called for laws to force companies to clean up their act.
"The progress made by businesses since the Kyoto Protocol (1997) to cut pollution and the production of greenhouse gas emissions are globally marginal," said one researcher with the group Global Responsibility, who declined to be named.
What progress had been made had been mostly in the richer countries, which had the money to implement an ecological policy, albeit on a voluntary basis, he added. "These countries are not the ones that are going to be polluting the most in the future." Big business in the richer countries would not go beyond public relations projects unless forced to by law, he warned.
Toepfer also highlighted the problem of scarce water resources in some regions. "A peacemaking policy would be to improve technology to use water, to recycle water. This is not a military topic but a diplomatic topic," he said
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