World Summit on Sustainable Development concluded September 4, 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa with commitments to improve the lives of people living in poverty and to reverse the continuing degradation of the global environment.

The 104 Heads of State and Government that took part in the Summit were joined by more than 21,000 people, including more than 9,000 delegates, 8,000 NGOs and 4,000 members of the press. In the Summit, the ten-chapter Plan of Implementation, aimed at detailing the actions needed to fight poverty and protect the environment was finally adopted.

As a result of the Summit, governments agreed on a series of commitments on water and sanitation, poverty eradication, alternative energy, and biodiversity, etc.

The most significant outcome of this summit is the progress made on Climate Change. In the summit, Russia, Canada and China announced their commitments to ratify Kyoto Protocol; thus, the Protocol may come into effect this year despite the USA's withdrawal. Countries also agreed to "strongly urge" nations that did not ratify Kyoto Protocol like the USA.

For water and sanitation, it is agreed to halve the proportion of people who lack clean water and proper sanitation by 2015. These commitments were backed up by a United States announcement of an investment of $970 million in water projects over the next three years, and a European Union announcement to engage in partnerships to meet the new goals, primarily in Africa and Central Asia. The UN received 21 other partnership initiatives in this area with at least $20 million in extra resources.

In energy, countries committed themselves to expanding access to the two billion people that do not have access to modern energy services. It is agreed to commit to green energy and the phase out of subsidies for types of energy that are not consistent with sustainable development. EU suggested to increase the use of renewable enerty upto 15% by 2010; however, countries did not agree on a target for phasing in renewable energy.

In is also agreed to phase out, by 2020, the use and production of chemicals that harm human health and the environment. Concerning to this issue, Minister of Environment Myung Ja Kim comments that this would significantly influence Korean industry, thus it is necessary to study on discharge channel and toxicity of chemicals.

Proposals for the Global Environment Facility to fund implementation of the Convention to Combat Desertification have already been adopted, and will have a major impact on improving agricultural practices in the drylands. Especially, GEF will fund for implementing ???Prevention and Control of Dust and Sandstorm(DSS) in North East Asia??? project, as decided in the meeting of Korean Minister of Environment and Klaus Toepfer, United Nations Under Secretary General on Aug. 31.

There were many commitments made to protect biodiversity and improve ecosystem management. These include commitments to reduce biodiversity loss by 2010; to restore fisheries to their maximum sustainable yields by 2015; to establish a representative network of marine protected areas by 2012; and to improve developing countries' access to environmentally-sound alternatives to ozone depleting chemicals by 2010.

To summarize, the overriding theme of the Summit was to promote action and major progress was made in Johannesburg to address some of the most pressing concerns of poverty and the environment. Commitments were made to increase access to clean water and proper sanitation, to increase access to energy services, to improve health conditions and agriculture, particularly in drylands, and to better protect the world's biodiversity and ecosystems.

The major outcome document, the Plan of Implementation, contains targets and timetables to spur action on a wide range of issues, including halving the proportion of people who lack access to clean water or proper sanitation by 2015, to restoring depleted fisheries to the preserving biodiversity by 2015, and phasing out of toxic chemicals by 2005. In addition, for the first time countries adopted commitments toward increasing the use of renewable energy "with a sense of urgency," Although a proposed target for this was not adopted.

While UN and most of governmental delegations are generally satisfied with the outcome of this Summit, representatives of NGOs criticize the Action Plan does not set targets or specific time for actions.

At the closing press conference, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said, "The true test of what the Johannesburg Summit achieves are the actions that are taken afterward. We have to go out and take action. This is not the end. It's the beginning."