Highlights and Significance of WSSD
In September 2002 more than 100 world
leaders along with thousands of delegates from Governments, civil society
and also business leaders met at the World Summit on Sustainable
Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg to agree on actions towards
sustainable development.
The Summit was preceded by an extended preparatory process during
which major stakeholder groups outlined their position on sustainable
development, prepared review documents and status reports, and tried to
define common approaches to moving forward. Many agreements between
diverse stakeholder groups were already reached during this phase.
The
status report prepared by the oil and gas
industry as input to WSSD was the first such global review of this
sector.
The Summit itself produced two main documents:
• The Political Declaration, and
• The Plan of Implementation.
The Political Declaration outlines the path taken from UNCED to the
WSSD, highlights present challenges, expresses a commitment to sustainable
development, underscores the importance of multilateralism and emphasizes
the need for implementation.
The Plan of Implementation is designed to guide national and
international actions relating to development, financing and investment
decisions by governments and other stakeholders. It includes chapters on:
poverty eradication; changing unsustainable patterns of consumption and
production; protecting and managing the natural resource base of economic
and social development; health; sustainable development of small island
developing States (SIDS); sustainable development for Africa; other
regional initiatives; means of implementation; and institutional
framework.
Implementation involves relevant actors working through individual
initiatives, and where appropriate, through partnerships with other key
players. Partnership approaches were already identified earlier in the
Monterrey Consensus as an indispensable mechanism to pursuing sustainable
development in a globalizing world.
The important aspect of corporate responsibility was recognised by
WSSD (Para 17 of the Plan of Implementation). The Summit also
confirmed the central role of the Global Reporting Initiative as a
framework for sustainability reporting.
The aspect of sustainable consumption patterns (Para 14) is
directly relevant to the industry in terms of encouraging a socially
efficient use of fuel resources in a future sustainable society.
Renewable energy was given support in Para 19
Many other parts of the Plan are also important to the industry. See a
copy of the Plan on: World
Summit on Sustainable Development Plan of Implementation
Details are available on :
www.johannesburgsummit.org/index.htm
www.un.org/esa/sustdev/index.htm
Prepared by Mr. Megherbi
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Also Available:
World
Summit on Sustainable Development Plan of Implementation
WEHAB
Framework Papers:
A Framework for Action on Energy (PDF)
Further Information:
Commission
on Sustainable Development (CSD)
CSD
Oceans and Seas
Agenda
21 - Chapter 17
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