Excerpts from ‘Only One Earth’ – Chapter 3: World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg 2002

Excerpts from ‘Only One Earth’ – Chapter 3 by Earthsummit2012 on Mixcloud

Leaders left the Earth Summit with high hopes for the future. But soon perceived economic imperatives got in the way of environmental commitments. Finance agreements and the development of the World Trade Organization transformed the global paradigm; trade became the new international organising principal, not the environment.

In this chapter Felix Dodds outlines how competing international interests set the stage for the 2002 Johannesburg Summit, polarised and lacking cooperative momentum in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks and the election of the George W Bush as US president.