Pigs' Stymie

The U.S., Saudi Arabia, and other rich nations are deliberately stymieing international efforts to encourage increased clean energy use, according to sources at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, being held this week and next in Johannesburg, South Africa. The WSSD action plan, which will be approved by heads of state at the end of the summit, currently includes a proposal that clean energy account for 15 percent of the world's total energy production by 2010. But delegates from the U.S. and other industrialized and oil-producing countries are lobbying to cut the provision, much to the frustration of environmentalists. The U.S. has vowed to fight for the elimination of the majority of specific targets and timetables in the action plan. In other, more uplifting news from the summit, delegates have reached an agreement to restore depleted fisheries worldwide by 2015. (Apparently, the U.S. let that deadline slide.) The agreement, which calls for sharply reduced catches in some areas and temporary fishing bans where necessary, especially in breeding grounds, marks the first notable success of the summit.