Johannesburg Summit 2002

The World Summit on Sustainable Development brought together tens of thousands of participants, including heads of state and government, national delegates and leaders from NGOs, businesses and other major groups to focus the world's attention and direct action on meeting environmental challenges.

Included in the goals were improving people's lives and conserving natural resources in a world that is growing in population, with ever-increasing demands for food, water, shelter, sanitation, energy, health services and economic security.

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The basic challenges and their consequences are:

Population
In the beginning of the 21^st century the population of the Earth reached 6 billion and is expected to level out between 10 and 11 billion over the next 50 years. The basic challenges will be shortages of drinking water and arable land for food production.

Poverty and inequality
Almost 25 percent of the population lives on less than USD 1 per day. Because inequality continues to be a serious obstacle to sustainable development, the Conference pledged to reduce this number by one half, along with the number of people suffering from undernourishment.

Food and agriculture
The fall of food prices over the past 30 years may have contributed to increases in consumption, but in many regions of the world arable terrains are limited, and the creation of new ones has a destructive effect on the remaining ecosystems. In the future, the growth of food production should not come at the expense of the destruction of nature. By 2010 the current pace of biodiversity loss should be significantly slowed.

Drinking water
The shortage of drinking water in many regions of the world is a major barrier to sustainable development. It is expected that, at the current rate of development, every second person will suffer from water shortage by the year 2025. The Conference pledged to halve the number of people lacking access to clean drinking water and basic hygienic needs by 2015.

Human health
In many cases, deaths in the developing countries are avoidable. Humanity should direct more attention and money in the coming years to the struggle against diseases. The imminent task is to reduce the death rate among children under five years of age by two-thirds and the death rate of young mothers by 75 percent by 2015.

Energy
Consumption of all forms of energy is continually rising. The improvement of access to reliable, sustainable and environmentally friendly energy sources and services, as well as the creation of national programmes for energy effectiveness, is a particularly important task for the next 10-15 years.

Forests
The world's forests diminish mainly due to expansion of agriculture. In the coming years, improving the recovery and management of the forests will be of utmost importance.

Climate change
Petrol consumption is constantly rising. The Conference emphasised the need to realise the decisions of the Kyoto Protocol for reaching an agreement on emission norms for greenhouse gases in developed countries.

The Conference declared the following tasks for humanity imminent:

• the need for better understanding of the sustainable development concept and stabilising the relevant institutions on international, regional and national levels; and

• further endorsement of civil society's role and the promotion of partners' initiatives between the private and public sectors.