Environmental summit ends with unfinished report

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Environment Writer

The Mayor's Asia-Pacific Environmental Summit yesterday established a committee headed by Mayor Jeremy Harris, which will tweak the conference report to the 2002 Earth Summit in Johannesburg.

Government leaders from around the Pacific and Asia in their closing session failed to adopt a draft report prepared during the conference, citing a lack of local focus.

The primary function of the environmental summit was the networking of municipal leaders and the sharing of solutions to crucial environmental problems many Asian and Pacific cities face. But the session was also designed to develop a statement by the local government leaders to the Earth Summit.

The session was set to approve the final draft of the Earth Summit report, but some mayors objected, suggesting that the draft did not adequately address local issues. The mayors and other government leaders sought more of a focus on the requirements of cities. Before adjourning the conference, they asked Harris to form a committee and revamp the proposal within two weeks.

The Johannesburg 2002 summit goes by several names. It is sometimes called the Earth Summit, and is also referred to as Rio+10. Formally, it is the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development.

It takes place a decade after the 1992 Rio de Janeiro U.N. Conference on Environment and Development, and is designed to review the progress of nations in implementing measures adopted at Rio.

More than 400 delegates from 29 counties attended the Mayor's Asia-Pacific Environmental Summit, which ran Thursday through yesterday at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.