TL: EARTH SUMMIT PRESS PACK #2: UNCED'S KEY PLAYERS
SO: Greenpeace International (GP)
DT: May 10, 1992
Keywords: Greenpeace gp conferences unced brazil executives
biography business links bcsd factsheets /

 
UNITED STATES:
A major obstacle to progress at UNCED. President Bush's
administration has blocked any reference to reducing CO2
emissions or assisting Southern countries to reduce their fossil
fuel dependence. At the UN's INC negotiations for a climate
change convention, the US has consistently opposed setting
targets or timetables for CO2 production. Meanwhile, the Bush
administration is promoting a national energy strategy which will
encourage greater use of coal in the US and abroad and lifting
moratoria on offshore oil drilling. This is bound to accelerate
global warming. Bush has manipulated UNCED so that the 
conference's success will be determined by his participation. Yet
without fundamental changes in US environmental, development and
energy policy, whatever emerges from the Earth Summit will be
futile.
 
The Bush administration has attempted to block any reference in
UNCED to the need for the North to reduce its consumption of the
world's resources, while keeping the door open for exporting the
toxic waste produced by that consumption, to the Third World.  
 
JAPAN: 
Japan regards UNCED as a major opportunity to improve its
environmental image throughout the world. Given its record in the
rainforests of Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Brazil and the
Philippines, this is not surprising.  Most large, northern
economies are looking to Japan to play a major role in providing
the financial resources being demanded by southern economies to
address global environmental damage. At pre-UNCED meetings on the
Global Environment Facility, Japan has appeared willing to
provide a significant portion of those funds. Japan supports
moves to leave radioactive waste dumping at sea off UNCED's
agenda and has joined Iceland in calling for the "sustainable"
exploitation of marine mammals. 
 
 
EUROPEAN COMMUNITY:
The European Community is made up of 12 member states which
include, on the one hand, the huge economies of Germany, Italy
and France, and on the other, the much poorer economies
of Spain, Portugal and Greece.  Collectively, the EC states
represent one of the biggest trade blocs in the world.
Historically, they owe a huge moral debt to their former colonies
and allies in the south after centuries of resource exploitation.
But the EC has failed to match that moral debt with action at
UNCED. For example, during the New York Prep Com, the EC strongly
opposed moves by Poland and Senegal for a complete ban on
hazardous waste exports from north to south. The diversity of
policies within EC member countries is a major block to progress.
For example, under the Climate Convention, official EC policy is
for CO2 stabilisation at 1990 levels by 2000. Germany, however,
has sought a much more advanced position of a 30 per cent cut in
CO2 by 2005. Meanwhile Spain, arguing economics, is pushing for
increases in its CO2 emissions.
 
 
G-77
Since its inception after the first UN Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD) in 1964, the "Group of 77" (now numbering
nearly 130 nations) has represented virtually all developing
countries.  In April in Kuala Lumpur, environment and development
ministers from 55 G-77 countries endorsed a Declaration calling
for: a separate fund from the Global Environment Facility to
implement Agenda 21; more transparent, democratic and accountable
financing mechanisms; commitments from the North to stabilise and
reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and the transformation of
Northern production, consumption and distribution patterns toward
environmentally sound development. The Declaration, however,
either avoided or underplayed the key issues of forests,
hazardous waste exports, nuclear weapons and biotechnology. The
G-77 takes in such diverse blocs as the OPEC nations (such as
Saudia Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) and AOSIS (the
Alliance of Small Island States -- including: Vanuatu, The
Maldives and Barbados). AOSIS, which represents the nations
facing the greatest immediate threat from projected sea level
rise, is insisting that developed countries commit to reducing
their CO2 emissions immediately. Meanwhile, the OPEC nations are
actively blocking any move towards a meaningful climate
convention.
 
 
 
WORLD BANK:  The World Bank has set itself up to control the 
Global Environment Facility, which will receive the bulk of the 
funds generated by the Earth Summit.  But the Bank has a 
disastrous track record of promoting "development" projects that 
contribute to deforestation, global warming and increased 
poverty.  The Bank also promotes structural adjustment programs 
in Southern nations which have forced the cut back of social and 
environmental programs, the increased exploitation of natural 
resources to pay back debt, and the opening of economies to free 
trade and transnational corporate investment.  The Bank is simply
imposing on the South the development model which has already
caused such devastation to Northern environments. According to
Bank  Chief Economist Lawrence Summers, the World Bank should be 
"encouraging more [underlined] migration of the dirty industries" 
to the Third World.  "I think the economic logic behind dumping a 
load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable," 
Summers wrote recently. 
 
BUSINESS COUNCIL FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (BCSD):
The BCSD represents big business at UNCED. Headquarters in
Geneva. It openly views UNCED as a means to opening up new
markets in developing countries, while promoting self-regulation
and free trade as the keys to "sustainable development."
The BCSD is made up of 48 chief executives and chairmen of
transnational corporations including: Du Pont, Dow Chemicals,
Mitsubishi, Aracruz, Browning Ferris Industries, and Royal Dutch
Shell.  Representing chemical, energy, forest and pesticide
conglomerates, many of these companies have been responsible for
major environmental destruction.  Since its first meeting in
November 1990, the BCSD has been spending millions of dollars on
developing a "forward looking" image for big business and the
environment. Public relations giants Burson-Marstellar have been
contracted to sell the BCSD message. 
 
 
THE GATT:
The Earth Summit falls under the shadow of the Uruguay Round of
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) talks and regional
trade agreements currently under negotiation.  By opening vast
new markets for corporate investment in the South, and by
promoting deregulation and the international harmonization of
environmental laws, GATT has become a major threat to the global
environment.  The US, the EC and the BCSD are promoting
unregulated free trade as the "key" to sustainable development in
the face of loud opposition from many environment and
development groups. UNCED Secretary General Maurice Strong has
called the Uruguay Round "critically important" for the prospects
of the Earth Summit's success,  stating that such free trade will
generate financial resources  for the environment.  But by
promoting free trade as the solution, UNCED is ignoring the
reality that unregulated trade-based growth has historically led
to the over-exploitation of natural resources; the transfer of
dirty industries to the South, and the persistent impoverishment 
of increasing numbers of people.  
 
 
MAURICE FREDERICK STRONG: 
Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Enviroment and
Development. A multi-millionaire, he owns houses in Switzerland
and Canada, a New Age ranch in Colorado and a beachfront property
in Costa Rica.  Strong was instrumental in setting up the UN
Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, 1972 but at
heart, he is an oil, gas and money man. At 17, he started
gambling on mineral and energy exploitation in Canada. Within ten
years, he had made his first million through a number of energy
and investment companies including Dome Petroleum Ltd and the
Power Corporation of Canada.  At 29, he became the first chairman
of PetroCan -- the Canadian government-owned petroleum
corporation. Exploiting his commercial and government
connections, he started a political career in the mid-1960s,
siding with the Canadian Liberals and promoting Canada's
impartial negotiating role at the UN. He dropped out of the
federal elections in 1979 due to mysterious "business
difficulties". Later, he was drawn into land deal and corporate
raiding scandals emerging unscathed - financially and
politically. Strong was director of the United Nation's
Environment Program in Nairobi from 1972 to 1975. He is the
architect of the Business Council for Sustainable Development
which has been central to the UNCED process since it began.  
 
 
 
STEPHAN T. SCHMIDHEINY:
A billionaire and heir to Switzerland's first family of
commerce. He is Principal Adviser for Business and Industry to
Maurice Strong at the Earth Summit and chairman of the Business
Council for Sustainable Development.  He privately supports the
BCSD by at least $5 million. Schmidheiny is on the boards of ABB
Asea Brown Boveri; Landis and Gyr; Leica; Nestle and SMH (makers
of Swatch).  His image makers heavily promote Schmidheiny's small
crafts foundation in Latin America, but this venture is tiny,
compared to his 30 per cent interest in Chile's largest 
steelmaking concern (CAP)--a polluter whose dust emissions have
created local human health risks and widespread environmental 
damage. Schmidheiny and Strong are both members of the World
Economic Forum -- a high level, Geneva-based think tank where
leading industrialists meet informally with world leaders.
Despite the BCSD's claims of a "UN  Mandate", Schmidheiny is a
personal appointee of Maurice Strong. He and the sophisticated
BCSD secretariat are accountable to no-one at  UNCED.  
  
NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS (NGOs):
Thousands of NGOs representing indigenous people, women, unions,
and environment and development issues will be represented at the
Earth Summit. Most NGOs believe that UNCED is going backwards
BOTH from the Stockholm conference of 1972, and from its original
UN mandate. At the final Prep Com meeting in New York, more than
50 large NGOs endorsed a ten-point plan to save the Earth Summit
calling for action on:  climate change; consumption patterns;
economic reform; the Global Environment Facility; transnational
corporations; hazardous waste exports; forests; nuclear weapons
and power; biotechnology; and trade. 
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