Mbeki, who was elected president of the summit by acclamation, continued: "All of us understand that the goal of shared prosperity is achievable because, for the first time in human history, human society possesses the capacity, the knowledge and the resources to eradicate poverty and underdevelopment. To use these possibilities successfully requires that we also agree to the concept of a common but differentiated responsibility."

Mbeki said it is now recognized that the world has grown into a global village. "The survival of everybody in this village demands that we develop a universal consensus to act together to ensure that there is no longer any river that divides our common habitat into poor and wealthy parts," he said.

But he acknowledged that not much progress has been made in the past decade in "realizing the grand vision contained in Agenda 21 and other international agreements. It is no secret," he went on, ìthat the global community has, as yet, not demonstrated the will to implement the decisions it has freely adopted. The tragic result of this is the avoidable increase in human misery and ecological degradation, including the growth of the gap between North and South. ìIt is as though we are determined to regress to the most primitive condition of existence in the animal world, of the survival of the fittest,î he said. ìIt is as though we have decided to spurn what the human intellect tells us, that the survival of the fittest only presages the destruction of all humanity."

Mbeki said the peoples of the world expect that the summit "will live up to its promise of being a fitting culmination to a decade of hope by adopting a practical program for the translation of the dream of sustainable development into reality and bringing into being a new global society that is caring and humane."

Mbeki's call for "a shared prosperity" was echoed by other speakers at the summit's opening plenary session. Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) told the delegates: "We must realize the dream of environmentally, socially and economically sustainable development, of prosperity for all."

Nitin Desai, Secretary General of the summit, said that the gap between rich and poor has widened as a result of globalization, calling it a kind of "global apartheid." But just as the people of South Africa were able to end racial apartheid in their country, he said, so the people of the world will be able to overcome this kind of apartheid as well. Desai conceded that the report card on implementation of the Rio Earth Summit, "a truly ambitious agenda," has, over all, been "very poor." The purpose of this summit, he added, should be to understand "what stood in the way of our getting results."

Now, he said, "We must have a sense of urgency. When we meet again in 10 years--perhaps here in Johannesburg--we will be able to talk about what we have achieved."