A noble notion but what about first priorities like food and health and education. Kyoto offered us the promise of environmental stability. But the outcomes are largely a compromise with countries like Australia securing the right to increase gas emissions while the polar caps melt. There is an AIDS epidemic in many countries in Asia and Africa. Yet the dispute mechanism of the WTO protects the profit interests of the big pharmaceutical companies and prohibits desperate people from the assistance of cheaply manufactured generic drugs.
Democracy is fragile.
While tomorrow you debate the question 'Can capitalism and accumulation of wealth stand alongside democracy and the egalitarian ideal' - the deposed Prime Minister of Fiji calls for help and nations stand by with little political will to act. In the face of corporate globalisation where companies like Microsoft, General Electric and Cisco Systems are larger economic entities that the entire stock markets of Australia and many other OECD countries, democracy and corporate regulation must also go global. The corporate community understands the need for rules. Indeed, they argue for regulation to protect intellectual property, physical property rights and contract law. Economic democracy is a viable aspiration and one in which good corporate citizens should share.