Earth Summit Deal Nears Completion

One day before the end of the Summit on Sustainable Development, delegates have finally compromised on a document that world leaders can sign.

Opinion is mixed on whether or not the net result is victory or defeat, reports CBS News Correspondent Elizabeth Palmer. Countries have agreed on a goal to halve the number of people in the world who live in poverty and have no access to adequate sanitation systems, and they've also committed to phasing out subsidies, which are widely blamed for dangerously depleting the world's fish stocks.

However, industrial countries, led by the United States, have rejected targets on the phasing in of renewable energy sources.

Summit Secretary-General Nitin Desai praised the agreement as a strong blueprint for sustainable development.

"The test is whether governments, along with civil society and the private sector, can pursue the commitments that are in the document, and take actions that achieve measurable results," he said.

In a move likely to please environmentalists, Russia told the conference it expected to ratify the Kyoto pact on global warming soon, which would virtually ensure its implementation.

Some of the more than 100 world leaders in Johannesburg opened their portion of the 10-day summit Monday with impassioned pleas for solutions to a litany of problems, including starvation in Africa, European and Asian floods, and financial crises in the Americas.

"Humanity has a rendezvous with destiny," French President Jacques Chirac declared. "Alarms are sounding across all the continents ... We cannot say that we did not know!"

Though President Bush stayed home — sending Secretary of State Colin Powell in his place — U.S. officials say they are firmly committed to the summit's success.

After months of preparation and more than a week of haggling, 10 words proposed by Canada in a bid to prevent female circumcision and to safeguard abortion rights stood in the way of a final deal.

Canada wanted to add: "and in conformity with all human rights and fundamental freedoms" to a paragraph on strengthening women's healthcare to try to prevent governments from arguing that religious and cultural practices were paramount.

"If it's not (included) the Johannesburg text will be a very bad day for women," Mary Robinson, U.N. human rights chief, said as dozens of world leaders made speeches at the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

South Africa and the European Union back Canada in talks likely to last until late on Tuesday. "Women's rights are human rights," Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said.

A group of women demonstrated in front of the conference hall for the addition of the words to a sweeping blueprint for halving poverty by 2015 by fighting AIDS, slowing global warming and deforestation and bolstering fish stocks.

After more than a week of bargaining, the European Union lost its push for targets on the use of wind and solar energy — the last major sticking point in the summit's action plan.

The agreed text includes a commitment to "urgently" increase the use of renewable energy sources, but also allows for the expanded use of hydroelectric damns and fossil fuels that are modified to pollute less, diplomats said.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said Moscow may ratify the Kyoto Protocol on limiting global warming this year.

Russian ratification would, due a complex weighting system, virtually ensure the treaty on reducing greenhouse gas emissions would be implemented despite its rejection by the biggest air polluter, the United States.

And China, the world's second biggest polluter, said it had symbolically ratified the deal.

Although not bound by Kyoto because it is a developing country, China's Premier Zhu Rongji told delegates at the summit China had ratified the pact.

Despite the Bush administration's 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."

A host of civic and environmental groups condemned the compromises at the summit, calling some of them a significant step backward from previous commitments.

"Economic interests were allowed to maintain their primacy over other global priorities," said Kim Carstensen, deputy head of WWF International's summit delegation.

World leaders must still formally adopt the non-binding agreement.