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, translated by Zheng Guihong, September 5, 2002)