Delegates working on the text say that it will cite poverty as ''both a cause and a consequence of environmental degradation'' and will seek to protect indigenous rights and traditions, as well as opportunities for civil society, as means of environmental protection. The Forum's supporters are hoping to create a movement which can connect social and environmental concerns and forge diverse alliances, in the same way that Bella Abzug, president of the Women's Environment and Development Organisation, argued that women's groups are now doing. We are challenging all corporations to play by the rules and all governments to ensure that the rules are fair.'' Much of that vision may be optimistic given the nature of the world economy, Gorbachev conceded. But quite a bit can be accomplished ''if we give a second wind to the United Nations.'' ''In order for it to accomplish more, we need a new U.N. structure and a Security Council that will reflect a whole new world,'' he contended. Brazil will offer the technology to India in a joint project designed to help developing nations fulfill commitments imposed by the Climate Change Convention, signed in 1992.
Brazil is the first country to use sugar cane alcohol as a fuel for motor vehicles.
However, the Brazilian programme to use alcohol as a petrol replacement is receding just when world interest in this alternative is really taking off. Northern countries have tried experiments with ethanol and methanol produced from beet, maize, wheat and wood, but with poor results in reducing poisonous emissions, said the Dasag company. Whether the aim is to combat the greenhouse effect, the leading environmental challenge for humanity, or simply to reduce air pollution, the amount of initiatives to substitute fossil fuels is multiplying. The United States is developing an ethanol aggregate for petrol, especially in cities like Los Angeles, choked by pollution, and Stockholm, where there are already 180 alcohol fuelled buses, said Richers. The transport sector is a priority objective, as this consuming a quarter of the primary energy used in the world as well as being the source of 22 percent of all CO2 emissions, he added.