JOHANNESBURG (CBS.MW) -- Wags are tripping over each other to quip that the worst instance of global warming this summer will be caused by the hot air emanating from tens of thousands of delegates attending the U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development.
It's easy to be cynical about the prospects for this 10-day conference, which starts Monday in this South African city and runs until Sept. 4. After all, even Kofi Annan, secretary-general of the United Nations, had this to say about progress since the last Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992:
"Attempts to promote human development and reverse environmental degradation have not, in general, been effective over the last decade."
The record is indeed depressing. While the number of people living in poverty has dipped from 1.3 billion to 1.2 billion, almost half the population of sub-Saharan Africa is living on less than $1 a day and millions in the region face starvation. More than a 1 billion people worldwide do not have access to safe drinking water.
The outlook for achieving Millennium Development Goals set two years ago of halving the number of people in poverty, who are hungry or who lack safe water by 2015 looks bleak, especially when trying to do it without further damaging the environment. Globally, 1.3 billion people -- double the number 40 years ago -- live on fragile lands such as arid zones, slopes, wetlands and forests, which cannot sustain them, according to a new report by the World Bank (see related story).
Talk about cynical: How can the countries these people call home be expected to adhere to conservationist principles when U.S. President George W. Bush rejects the 1997 Kyoto Protocol targets on carbon emissions?
How can the developing world take the free-trade mumbo-jumbo of Europe, Japan and the U.S. seriously when these industrialized giants spend $300 billion annually on agricultural subsidies? The handouts to rich-world farmers depress global prices for farm products and thus the incomes of poor farmers. Adding insult to this injury, these handouts amount to roughly six times what the West disburses as foreign aid to poor countries.
Reasons to be cheerful?
Because there will be no shortage over the next several days of gloom-and-doom scenarios for renewable energy, wildlife protection and human health, here -- at the risk of lowered expectations -- are some of the things by which the Johannesburg Earth Summit can be judged a success.
1. Bush's snub. W won't be among the 100 world leaders attending the summit, but at least he's sending subordinates. Let's hope Secretary of State Colin Powell, who said last month that sustainable development is not only a humanitarian concern but also a "security imperative," will remind his boss of this notion in cabinet meetings for the next two years.
2. Good governance. This (and the war on terror) is the main thrust of the Bush administration's message to the developing world. Considering the tattered reputation of American corporate governance, thanks to the likes of Enron ENRNQ (whose shenanigans were not limited to home but also extended to places like India), the reaction is likely to be: Good grief.
But wait. Corporations have a real chance to burnish their images, as long as they spare the greenwash. Some have been trying to exercise social responsibility for some time. Starbucks SBUX, -0.40% is working with Conservation International to preserve biodiversity while helping small-scale farmers in coffee-growing countries of Latin America, Asia and Africa.
More than 120 companies, including British American Tobacco BTI, +0.46% and Japan's Isuzu Motors ISUZY, +2.70% have adopted the voluntary guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) to demonstrate their commitment to environmental and social issues. GRI and Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, the former chairman of Royal Dutch/Shell RD who is leading Business Action for Sustainable Development at the summit, should push companies that adopt the guidelines to become even more transparent by accepting independent verification of their green credentials.
3. Good governance, part two. Without doubt, developing countries have to get their act together. Bad governance wracks many African countries. The New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) marks a departure because Africans themselves devised this blueprint for ending conflicts on the continent, promoting democracy and creating jobs.
Good for selling the rest of the world on Nepad that one of its architects, South Africa President Thabo Mbeki, is also hosting the summit. Good for governance that Nepad calls for peer review. Immediately, African governments should start publicly criticizing the madness of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, whose catastrophic and criminal land redistribution policies have put six million of his people at risk of famine and could wreak havoc on the economy of southern Africa.
Summit delegates should also look across the border at Botswana, admittedly a shining exception, to see good governance at work.
4. Cherchez le communiqué. The true test of success will lie in nuts-and-bolts implementation rather than the lofty political goals of the Earth Summit's final declaration.
So many issues on the sprawling agenda demand attention -- trade, fisheries, technology transfer and, yes, global warming. To be sure, it's important to have goals for 2015 and to understand trends that will sustain development -- or not -- through 2050.
But the best way to secure the planet for everyone's children is to put sub-Saharan Africa's food shortages, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the floods and droughts on several continents at the top of the agenda. These are life-or-death issues. They require action right now.