Words in the News Monday 26 August 2002 Vocabulary from the news. Listen to and read the report then find explanations of difficult words below.
World Summit on Sustainable Development Johannesburg Summary: President Thabo Mbeki has opened the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg with a call to end poverty worldwide. But summit delegates have just 10 days to make a difference. This report from Barnaby Phillips.
President Mbeki said that, for the first time in human history, society has the capacity, the knowledge and the resources to eradicate poverty. He described the last ten years as a decade of inertia. He said everyone agreed that current unsustainablepatterns of production and consumption are creating an environmental disaster that threatens all life. President Mbeki has a difficult task here.
As host he desperately wants this conference to succeed, but as one of Africa's leading statesmen he's also involved in tough negotiations with the rich western countries. The United States in particular is reluctant to agree to increased aid flows and reduced trade barriers, which the poorer countries say are prerequisites for development.
