EARTH SUMMIT, 2002

EARTH SUMMIT, 2002

Ø  The World Summit on Sustainable Development, WSSD or Earth Summit 2002 took place in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Ø  It was convened to discuss sustainable development by the United Nations.

Ø  WSSD gathered a number of leaders from business and non-governmental organizations, 10 years after the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. (It was therefore also informally nicknamed "Rio+10".)

Ø  The Johannesburg Declaration was the main outcome of the Summit; however, there were several other international agreements.

Ø  It laid out the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation as an action plan.

Ø  Instead of new agreements between governments, the Earth Summit was organized mostly around almost 300 "partnership initiatives" known as Type II, as opposed to Type I Parnerships which are the more classic outcome of international treaties. These were to be the key means to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

Ø  The absence of the United States rendered the summit partially impotent. George W. Bush boycotted the summit and did not attend.