| MONTERREY,
Mexico -- Jan Pronk, the Dutch environment minister
who will act as UN Secretary General Kofi A. Annan's
special envoy at the World Summit for Sustainable
Development in Johannesburg later this year, said
he hoped the consensus reached in Monterrey this
week would translate into action when world leaders
meet again in South Africa.
In
an interview with The Earth Times, Pronk brushed
aside criticism by the United States that the agenda
for the meeting in South Africa's largest city was
too broad and too vague.
He said there had been an effort by South
Africa last year on behalf of the Group of
77 developing nations towards a well-defined
global schedule on key issues.
"It was accepted by the European Union
nations, but not by the United States. It is
a conference that is very strongly related
to the Agenda 21 agreed in Rio de Janeiro a
decade ago. We decided then to review its implementation-we
are not going to set new goals," he said. "We
have the goals now, and we need to discuss
how we will meet those goals." He said
the issues of climate change, a debate which
he spearheaded in the UN, the Doha Development
Round, and the consensus achieved in Monterrey
were "off our shoulders," so that
the talks would be more focused. Pronk, who
is currently running for re-election in the
Netherlands, said the Johannesburg conference
should be expected to form a program of action
now that new resources had been found in Monterrey,
following the European and American decisions
to step up development aid. The consensus reached
should be "topped up" in Johannesburg,
he said.
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