Just what is the UN'S "World Summit on Sustainable Development" for? This giant jamboree, which opened in Johannesburg this week and will culminate on September 4th with a meeting of over 100 heads of government, risks be- ing about everything and therefore, in the end, about nothing. No one in their right mind is against "sustainable development". Everyone thinks it would be terrific if there were less poverty, less pollution, less disease, less war, less corruption. Not quite everyone, alas, favours more democracy, especially in the poorer parts of the world; in the richer world, too, not quite everyone, alas, favours more economic growth. But the world did not need tens of thousands of people to travel to South Africa in order to learn all of that. Such a gathering is bound to do some good, simply through the contacts made and ideas exchanged, in myriad small but useful ways. But there are also big dangers in summits such as these. Grand meetings, like the "Earth Summit" in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 to which this was originally meant to be a follow-up, can breed confusion and cynicism. Confusion, because of the cacophony of different voices and objectives, to which this broader summit looks especially prone. Cynicism, because the bold promises made are so rarely met. How many countries have actually hit (or are really on their way to hitting) the targets set at Rio, or in Kyoto in 1998, for cutting greenhouse-gas emissions? Precious few.
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