FOR about four days last week, Britain dropped Michael Meacher, its environment minister and a political expert on global warming, from its negotiating team for next week’s World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. It’s a surreal thought that at the follow-up to the Earth Summit in Rio 10 years ago, the world’s greatest environmental carnival, Britain could consider taking 40 spin doctors but no environment minister.
That decision exposes a serious point about the World Summit. There’s a widespread feeling that it’s all about poor nations’ development and banishing poverty – so why would you need an expert on…
