Earth Summit Deal in Sight, Russia Backs Kyoto
Tue Sep 3, 6:12 AM ET
By Jodie Ginsberg

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - After months of preparation and more than a week of haggling, 10 words stood in the way of a global agreement on slashing poverty and mending the planet as the Earth Summit went into its penultimate day on Tuesday.

Delegates were confident an unforeseen obstacle raised by Canada, which is backed by the EU, about a previously agreed text on health-care would be overcome at a vote on Tuesday.

Canada wanted the words "and in conformity with all human rights and fundamental freedoms" linked to a text on health care to avoid condoning practices like female genital mutilation in Third World countries.

"If it's not (included) the Johannesburg text will be a very bad day for women," said Mary Robinson, U.N. human rights chief.

A group of women demonstrated in front of the conference hall for the addition of the words, while Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz met inside with U.N. chief Kofi Annan ( news - web sites) to discuss the crisis between Baghdad and Washington.

In a move likely to please environmentalists, Russia said on Tuesday it expected to ratify the Kyoto pact on global warming ( news - web sites) soon, a move that would virtually assure the treaty is implemented. China said it had ratified the deal.

The action plan that will crown the 10-day World Summit on Sustainable Development has fallen far short of the ambitious blueprint envisioned by many governments and green groups.

The question of how binding the final agreement is depends on a political declaration that also needs to be hammered out.
The biggest hurdle facing the accord was removed when the EU dropped its insistence on setting targets to boost the use of renewable energy sources, in what was widely viewed as a victory for the United States and OPEC ( news - web sites) oil-exporting states.

"With the exception of the one issue that Canada is going to raise on human rights, the negotiations are over," said one senior Canadian government official.

RUSSIA, CHINA BACK KYOTO
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said Moscow may ratify the Kyoto Protocol ( news - web sites) this year.
Russian ratification would, due a complex weighting system, virtually ensure the treaty on reducing greenhouse gas emissions could be implemented despite its rejection by the biggest air polluter, the United States.
Although not bound by Kyoto because it is a developing country, China, one of the world's biggest polluters, said it had ratified the pact.

Ratification of Kyoto might appease environmentalists angry over an energy deal that agreed to a "substantial increase" in the use of renewable energy like solar and wind power, but stopped short of setting any clear global targets.

"The Americans, Saudis and Japanese have got what they wanted...It's worse than we could have imagined," Steve Sawyer, climate policy director of Greenpeace, told Reuters.

Environmentalists have also complained that the trade section of the text failed to highlight the ecological and social costs of globalization.

While not legally binding, the agreement could make a difference to the lives of billions of people living in wretched poverty -- if governments live up to their commitments.

The governments agreed a global target to halve the proportion of people without access to adequate sanitation by 2015, matching the same commitment made on safe drinking water at the U.N.'s 2000 Millennium Conference.

According to the U.N. 2002 Human Development Report, 1.1 billion people lacked access to safe drinking water in 2000, and 2.4 billion did not have adequate sanitation.

The summit also agreed to restore depleted fish stocks by 2015 and to phase out subsidies that contribute to overfishing -- though accomplishing the former may prove difficult as some collapsed fisheries may be too far gone to recover.

However South African newspapers lead with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe blasting British Prime Minister Tony Blair ( news - web sites) for meddling in the former British colony's affairs, while clashes between police and Palestinian protesters also featured widely.

Police used water cannon, stun grenades and rubber bullets on Monday against pro-Palestinian activists demonstrating against a visit by Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.