But contributions to the fund are voluntary

But contributions to the fund are voluntary.How it was reachedThe over-arching aim of the Johannesburg Earth Summit was to bridge the income gap between the world’s richest and poorest, while ensuring the environment is not harmed in the process. Per capita income in many countries is now lower than it was 20 years ago.The number of people living on less than $1 a day declined slightly in the Nineties, to 1.2 billion from 1.3 billion largely because of progress in India and China. But in the richest couple of dozen countries, average income per head is more than $60 a day while Americans have nearly $100 a day.Will it make a difference?Not a lot. The real goals – to halve dire poverty by 2015 were decided by the Millennium Summit two years ago. The test will be whether countries meet them.AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIESThe agreement To end the subsidies that encourage the plundering of Third World fisheries by the West and restore fish stocks by 2015 at the latest, recognising oceans are essential to the ecosystem and a critical source of food, especially in poor countries.How it was reachedThe first significant deal of the summit. All 190 countries agreed to restore all the world’s fisheries to commercial health by 2015. The deal, reached on the second day of negotiations, means all countries will be responsible for reversing declines in fish stocks or maintaining them at a healthy level and ensuring the level of catches is sufficiently low that the fish can be taken indefinitely.

But environmentalists said the deal, aimed at replenishing fishing stocks to commercial health by 2015, was a classic example of “too little to late”. Fish stocks worldwide are in crisis with more than 70 per cent of commercially important stocks either over-exploited, depleted, or close to the maximum sustainable level of exploitation. Consumption of fish has increased by 240 per cent since 1960Will it make a difference?It could do. But the wording of the agreement is not particularly strong, and many fishing nations have so far strongly resisted tough controls.BIODIVERSITYThe agreement To make a significant cut to the rate at which rare animals and plants are becoming extinct, by 2010.How it was reachedEnvironmentalists expressed dismay at the wording, which is less strong than an equivalent resolution agreed at another international conference as recently as April. The new non-binding proposal is aimed at curbing the destruction of habitats such as rain forests, wetlands and coral reefs, which is driving animal and plant species to extinction. Nobody knows, even within millions, how many species there are on earth, but it seems that human activities are precipitating the greatest mass extinction since the dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago.

Great holes could be torn in the web of life, with incalculable consequences. The target was set despite resistance from the US and the G77 group of developing countries, but remains weak and largely meaningless. The Worldwide Fund for Nature said: “The Plan of Implementation will not provide significant movement forwards … In some cases it actually constitutes a step backwards.”Will it make a difference?Precious little in itself.