While the second World Summit on Sustainable Development, known as the Earth Summit, was going on in full swing in the South African city of Johannesburg, Che Bo, staff reporter of China Youth Daily in Paris, had an exclusive interview with former UN Secretary-General Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who talked about changes since the first Earth Summit was held in Rio de Janeiro 10 years ago.
Che Bo: The second Earth Summit again attracts the world?s attention to environment protection. In contrast with the first meeting held 10 years ago in Rio de Janeiro of Brazil, the environment is not improving but deteriorating. In this case, as a founder of the ?sustainable development? concept and the host of the last Earth Summit, what would you like to say about it?
Boutros-Ghali: There is no doubt that the first Earth Summit held 10 years ago was an important milestone of human development because it lead people to a brand new concept of sustainable development. What is sustainable development? In brief, human beings should regard economic development as a long-term action, should try to keep sustained economic growth in a long period instead of seeking short- or mid-term profit at the expenses of deteriorating the ecological environment and natural space. For the past 10 years, the birth of this concept aroused huge echoes worldwide. For instance, more than 40 countries have named their Minister of Environment responsible for environmental protection, which shows people have started attaching importance to this issue.
Yet some media doubt about the achievements of environmental protection in the past decade. Well, in my opinion, it is a rather long process for a brand new concept to go into people?s hearts, to become natural parts of people?s lives, and it could not be done in just several years. The point is how to make it known by everyone, and it will be a concrete and complicated project to include organizing a series of international activities, making international treaties, holding international conferences as well as establishing international organizations.
Che Bo: According to some media, the failure of the first Earth Summit is due to the fact that most developed countries did not keep their promise to donate their 0.7 percent GDP to developing countries as promised at the summit. Do you agree with this? As an historical witness and main responsible person of the last summit, do you feel sorry about that?
Boutros-Ghali: First of all, it is necessary to make clear that protecting the earth is a shared duty and responsibility of all members on the earth, both developed countries and developing countries. Of course, developed countries which process 80 percent of the global wealth should shoulder the main responsibility. In the first Earth Summit, developed countries promised to give 0.7 percent of their GDP to aid developing countries, but they were far away from keeping their words. Perhaps only two or three nations have had their aids reach this standard. Others should rethink about this. Meanwhile, developing countries should not forget their obligations either. How can a developed country be willing to invest in a war-torn country or a country with no basic infrastructure facilities?
Che Bo: Over the past weeks, we saw lots of pictures on TV of massive-scale floods running rampant not only in Asia but also in Europe. So, many people are calling the second Earth Summit for more actions instead of lip service to improve environment. What do you think we should do to harness the deteriorating global environment?
Boutros-Ghali: The floods you mentioned are linked to climate change. I can also give you more examples of the crises I myself witnessed, such as the safety of drinking water in Africa, the survival of wild birds as well desertification. Confronted with so many problems, shall we deal with them simultaneously or shall we choose some urgent ones and tackle them case by case? What are the burning issues at the moment? These are what the second Earth Summit should concern about. Well, I think, if one day we can concentrate our efforts on some key issues, the effect will be great. It will be much more powerful than dividing our forces to everything and everywhere. History has proved that it will be fruitless if we try to solve all environmental problems at one time.
(china.org.cn by Zheng Guihong, September 5, 2002)
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