June 2002: The tenth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) acting as the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) took place from 27 May-7 June 2002, at the Bali International Convention Center in Bali, Indonesia.

The session was preceded by informal consultations held on 25-26 May at the same venue to consider the Revised Chairman’s Paper (A/CONF.199/PC/L.1/Rev.1). During the session, delegates produced the Draft Plan of Implementation for the WSSD (A/CONF.199/PC/L.5/Rev.1), which was transmitted to the Summit in Johannesburg for further negotiation. They also agreed on the modalities for the organization of work during the Summit (A/CONF.199/PC/L.7) and, based on the consultations held, mandated PrepCom Chair Emil Salim (Indonesia) to prepare elements for a political declaration and post them on the Johannesburg Summit website by the end of June 2002. Negotiations on the implementation plan were conducted in working groups and contact groups, while the Plenary, Multi-Stakeholder Dialogues and High-Level Ministerial Segment provided input for the implementation plan and the political declaration. There were also informal consultations on partnerships.

Although the session had hoped to conclude negotiation of the implementation plan, round-the-clock negotiations by ministers during the last three days of the session failed to produce consensus on key aspects of the plan, particularly on trade, finance and globalization. Thus, it was agreed to revert the basis of negotiations of these sections to the Facilitator’s compromise text from Wednesday, 5 June. Among the outstanding issues are the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, trade and finance, and energy.

The Earth Negotiations Bulletin report outlining these discussions in detail can be found at: http://enb.iisd.org/linkages/vol22/enb2241e.html