Big business 'plans to hijack Johannesburg Earth Summit'

The Johannesburg Earth Summit is to be hijacked by the interests of big business, led by Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, the former head of Shell, according to environmental pressure groups.

Non-governmental organisations, such as Friends of the Earth, fear that business will field huge delegations to scupper any chance of new binding rules of conduct being agreed for multi-national corporations. NGOs and developing countries believe that legal controls are needed to protect the livelihoods and environments of the poor against corporate "greed".

In addition, FoE claimed yesterday it had uncovered evidence that one of the world's largest companies, Exxon, which is frequently accused of being a major destroyer of the environment, is funding supposedly independent groups that will promote the business agenda at the gathering of world leaders later this month.

Tony Juniper, director designate of FoE, said: "This casts a grim light on the iron triangle of the Bush White House, corporate polluters such as Exxon Mobil, and conservative lobbyists.

"They are determined to block any progress at the Johannesburg Summit. They have already leaned on President Bush not even to show up, and are now demanding that his negotiators do their best to wreck any hope of agreement."

Fuelling the concerns of NGOs is the fact that some of the official delegations from the developed world contain the leaders of companies that are accused of causing environment damage and those that seek to grab lucrative environmental contracts in the developing world.

The UK official delegation includes Robert Wilson, the executive chairman of the mining giant Rio Tinto, and Bill Alexander, the chief executive of Thames Water. The interests of the City are represented by Dame Judith Mayhew of the law firm Clifford Chance, and the Corporation of London.

Global companies have formed an organisation called Business Action for Sustainable Development (BASD) to lobby on behalf of corporate interests. It is led by Sir Mark, the former chairman of Shell.