Danish

Uncovering ‘GreenWash’
Forward
The World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) was meant to review
progress made since the first Earth Summit in Rio and move forward with a
plan of action on environment and development issues. To this end, each country
was required by the United Nations to produce a national assessment of its
implementation of Agenda 21 over the last ten years. The result was in many
cases a slow rate of return of numerous ‘greenwash’ reports. Many of the government
reports focused on self-congratulation, cynically trying to use the
Johannesburg Summit as a public relations event rather then a time for introspection.
Other government reports were rather self-critical but were unwilling
to detail a national plan of action for real change. Other countries have yet to
even submit their reports, reflecting the minimum priority placed on environment
and development issues.
Overall government reports revealed a lack of political will required to implement
sustainable development. While all nations score differently in levels of
implementation and sustainable development successes, the general conclusion
is that inaction more than action has characterized the last decade. As we
approach the tenth anniversary of Rio, we are a long way from our optimistic
aspirations of environmental sustainability and a world free of poverty.
While the international forum is imperative to achieving sustainable development,
it is the culminating effort of nation states that will change the state of
the world. In order to produce honest assessments and critiques of their countries,
many non-governmental organizations formed networks to develop their
own national reports. On many occasions the existence of a government report
provided the precise opportunity for civil society NGOs to present alternative
assessments or ‘shadow reports’ of what has occurred at the national level.
Though in each country civil society groups have organized themselves differently
and the reports follow different formats, the common theme of this publication
is an independent perspective on what has happened over the last decade
and what needs to be urgently done to place our countries on track with
sustainable development.
At the Johannesburg Summit there is a striking lack of political commitment
to sustainable development appearing in the text of the draft plan of implementation.
It is clear to civil society groups that if governments were forced into
public debate over their lack of performance in advancing Agenda 21 they might
be pressured to take greater strides in implementing their environmental commitments
at both the national and global level. Unfortunately the governments
and the WSSD process did not embrace critical review of past performance, and
wanted only to look to the future without learning from the immediate past.
As sustainable development often requires changing the status quo, implementing
it requires leadership and political will. Unfortunately few governments
have been willing to take the steps needed to move towards a more equitable
world. Many of the challenges outlined in the reports are not new and what they
make clear is that if the next ten years are going to move beyond the last, we
will need clear targets, timelines, means of implementation and monitoring.
The WSSD is a key point in history to generate renewed commitments and
political will to move towards more sustainable societies.
This document brings civil society representatives from twenty-two countries
from different continents around the globe who challenge governments in their
efforts to date in implementing Agenda 21 and promoting sustainable develop-