On Wednesday the world’s heads of state and government endorsed the Plan of Implementation adopted at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. Norway has helped to achieve good results in a number of areas, although the Plan of Implementation falls far short of what is needed to meet the challenges facing the world today.

“I am reasonably satisfied with the results achieved in Johannesburg. We feared setbacks and a much poorer result, so I have no problem endorsing this document,” said Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik. He expressed particular satisfaction with the role Norway played at the summit, and especially the efforts of Minister of International Development Hilde F. Johnson and Minister of the Environment Børge Brende.

It is particularly in the areas of sanitation, biological diversity and chemicals that concrete progress has been made. And commitment to the Rio principles has been reaffirmed. Norway played a major role in preventing WTO rules from being given precedence over multilateral environmental agreements. It is also encouraging that the pledges made by the USA and the EU in the Monterrey Consensus have now been incorporated into the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation as specific commitments.

As regards climate, the Plan of Implementation includes a passage where countries that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol strongly urge others to do the same. Taken together with the fact that China, Russia, Canada and India all announced during the summit that they intend to ratify the Protocol, this constitutes real progress.

Sanitation was a high-priority issue for Norway. Our ambition was for the summit to set a target of halving the number of people without access to basic sanitation by 2015. This is closely related to the goal of halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water. “And we did achieve our ambition. This is an important breakthrough that will benefit a great many poor people,” said the Prime Minister.

Norway played a major role in preventing wording in the Plan of Implementation that could have been interpreted as meaning that WTO rules should take precedence over other multilateral agreements on environment and development. “In my opinion, Norway and Switzerland did the summit a great service by pushing this through,” said the Prime Minister.

As regards biodiversity, countries have undertaken to bring about a significant reduction in the current rate of loss of biodiversity by 2010. Norway fought for the target of complete elimination of biodiversity losses, but the specific commitment to a significant reduction is nevertheless an important step forward.

Norway fought for the target of phasing out entirely the production and use of chemicals that have significant adverse effects on human health and the environment, but is nevertheless satisfied that a specific commitment was reached to minimize the production and use of such chemicals by 2020.. Norway also helped to highlight the health and environmental damage caused by heavy metals and the need for international efforts in this field.

For much of the summit, there was a risk that the precautionary principle laid down by the Rio summit might be weakened. “This would have been an unacceptable step backwards,” said the Prime Minister. Norway was actively involved in ensuring that this did not happen.

“We knew that energy would be a difficult issue, and are disappointed that it was not possible to achieve more in this field. Nevertheless, the initiative to form a coalition of countries to promote energy efficiency and increase the use of renewable energy sources was an encouraging development. Norway will take part in this work,” said the Prime Minister.

Norway also sought to achieve an action plan to increase access to energy for the poorest groups and to increase the global share of renewable energy to at least 15 per cent of the primary energy supply by 2010, and the proportion of new renewables to 10 per cent. We were not able to achieve these goals.

“The social dimension has not received the prominence Norway would have liked to see in the Plan of Implementation. For example, it lacks references to the ILO conventions on labour standards and social standards. This is disappointing,” the Prime Minister said.

In his statement to the summit, Prime Minister Bondevik pledged NOK 375 million from Norway to follow up the Plan of Implementation in the key areas Secretary-General Kofi Annan has identified, i.e. water, energy, health, agriculture and biodiversity. This funding will be additional to what Norway is already providing for these areas.

“Now the world must follow up the decisions that have been made in Johannesburg. We must act effectively. This will require strong international institutions that can monitor implementation and ensure that the Plan of Implementation remains a fully viable document. In response to the Johannesburg summit, the Norwegian Government will draw up a national plan of action describing how we plan to follow up the decisions made there. Those of us who have endorsed the Plan of Implementation must also follow up on our commitments,” said Mr Bondevik.