Flashpoints at Rio
Forests: For the South, this is perhaps the most crucial and most difficult battle ahead. The North has been insisting on a legal framework to manage the world's forests. Each preparatory meeting saw bitter negotiations as southern countries rallied together to prevent this assault on their sovereignty. This time again, the item will be hot as northern governments and powerful northern NGOs ally together on this issue.
Some southern environmentalists also see the forest convention as a threat because it would globalise control over forest management and disempower local communities.
Funds: The question is how much will be promised and how the funds will be controlled. The secretariat of the conference says US $125 billion is needed in aid every year for cleaning up environmental problems.
The Group of 77 (G-77) has asked for 0.7 per cent of the GNP to be given as aid by the end of the century. But the North is not willing to commit to a timeframe.
GEF: The Global Environment Facility of the World Bank has been unacceptable to the South as the future funding mechanism as it is dominated by the donor countries. Now the South has accepted GEF, but only as an interim mechanism and only once it is "modified", in the words of Indian environment minister, Kamal Nath. The biodiversity and climate conventions have accepted this formulation, though without specifying what these modifications would be. In May, a high- powered meeting of the GEF said that decision-making would be balanced so that developing countries get adequate representation, while donor countries get adequate weightage for their funding efforts. Now that the US has come out strongly against any such moves, it remains to be seen what deals are struck in Rio.
Technology Transfer: There has been no consensus on this issue. The patent- protected North is unwilling to make commitments to transfer technology on favourable, concessional and preferential terms to developing countries to help deal with environmental problems.
Earth Charter: Though non-legally binding, the charter is a set of principles which underlie the substance and morality of the conference. The South wants the principles to clearly articulate its world vision, putting humans and development at the centre of ecological concerns. But the North sees this as "unbalanced" and would, in particular, like to avoid any mention of linking unsustainable consumption patterns to environmental degradation.