Compromises Reached At World Summit
Negotiators hammered out the last details of a plan to fight poverty and save the environment with a compromise Monday on renewable energy, diplomats said.
"The negotiations are effectively over," said Lowell Flanders, a senior U.N. official.
The agreed-upon text includes a commitment to "urgently" increase the global share of renewable energy sources like solar and wind power. But the European Union lost a push for the inclusion of a specific target.
The United States and oil-producing countries had resisted the inclusion of targets and timeframes in the plan, arguing that concrete projects were more important than paper agreements.
After a week of negotiations, diplomats also reached compromises in three other key areas: climate change, trade and sanitation.
Despite the United States' refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, it accepted language that says nations backing Kyoto "strongly urge" states that have not done so to ratify it in "a timely manner."
Negotiators agreed to texts on trade that urge countries to reform subsidies that are environmentally harmful, such as those for the fishing industry that contribute to overcapacity.
They committed to halving the 2 billion people living without proper sanitation and sewage by 2015.
And they agreed to emphasize the need for good governance to achieve sustainable development, but did not make it a condition for receiving aid as advocated by the United States.
But political tension is rising among some of the 100 world leaders as delegates race flat out to conclude the business of the 10-day summit before its September 4 scheduled close.
Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said his government was still considering allowing U.N. arms inspectors back in to the country. He later sat quietly only a few rows from senior officials of the United States, which is considering an attack on Iraq, suspecting it of developing weapons of mass destruction.
The absence of U.S. President George W. Bush at the U.N. gathering on poverty and the environment, continues to draw fierce criticism from environmentalists and other governments.
Former colonial masters and the leaders of their now independent former colonies sat cheek-by-jowl, though the tension among some was still being played out.
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, who has launched a controversial land reform programme to seize white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks, slept through a lot of the rambling speeches in the morning and then snubbed British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"We have not asked for any inch of Europe or any square inch of that territory so, Blair, keep your England and let me keep my Zimbabwe," he said, triggering the day's loudest applause.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni admonished the West for its "greed and insensitivity" and quoted passages from the Bible to protest against the rich subsidies paid to Western farmers and blamed for choking off Africa's farm trade.
"They preach free trade, but practice protectionism," Museveni said to applause.
In an ocean of nationalities, dress, language and color, one half of the world's population remained relatively under-represented in a list of 46 speakers on Monday. There were only three women; New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, Finnish President Tarja Halonen and Iran's Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar.
The different sections must be combined into one nonbonding agreement before they are submitted for adoption by heads of state. U.N. officials said this was not expected to happen before Tuesday.