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For Immediate Release:
September 4, 2002

Contact:
Michael Dorsey 072-545-6841 (Johannesburg)
Zachary Roth (202) 675-6279 (Washington, DC)

World Leaders Rebuff Bush Administration at Environmental Summit

Final Summit Political Declaration Strong on Rhetoric, Weak on Promises

Johannesburg - The Sierra Club today said that the most remarkable product
of the Johannesburg World Summit on the environment was the degree to which
other world leaders were willing to reject the Bush administration's
misguided climate policy.  The organization believes that the Bush
administration's refusal to adequately address climate change would harm US
business.

"America's largest trading partner Canada, as well as America's greatest
ally, Great Britain, have announced their intention to ratify the Kyoto
Protocol on Climate Change.  Russia, China and Mexico have also committed
to ratify," said Michael Dorsey, a Sierra Club director.  "These countries
and others have chosen to act in spite of the Bush administration's
strenuous attempt to keep the climate issue off of the Summit agenda.

"American businesses now risk being left behind as our neighbors and
competitors invest more resources in new, clean and efficient
technologies," continued Dorsey.  "The heat is on the US to get serious
about addressing the global climate crisis."

While many heads of state from around the world used the opportunity of the
largest international meeting in history to announce their country's
commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the Summit's "Plan of
Action" inadequately addresses sustainable development and environmental
protection.  Commitments to provide clean water and sanitation for the poor
were undermined by the lack of measurable goals.

"The Bush administration worked furiously to remove renewable energy
targets and timetables from the final plan of action," said Stephen Mills,
Director of the Sierra Club's International Program.  "But in effect what
they have done is to insure that American business will follow, not lead
the rest of the world. The White House has shown that it is not only out of
touch with the majority of Americans, it is also out of touch with the rest
of the world."

The Bush administration put forward voluntary partnerships with business as
the means to protect the environment, while at the same time rejecting
international corporate accountability.

"Partnerships, especially corporate partnerships, must be subject to an
international framework of binding accountability," said Mills.  "Americans
know that corporate self-policing doesn't work, the Enron and WorldCom
scandals have shown us this the hard way.  We simply don't want
corporations to do to our environment what they have done to our 401K's."
                                    ###



Erin Jordahl
Director, Iowa Chapter Sierra Club
3839 Merle Hay Road, Suite 280
Des Moines, IA 50310
515-277-8868
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