Social Summit NGO Forum

During the Social Summit, hundreds of NGOs were active at the Summit or at the large parallel NGO Forum in Copenhagen, Denmark. Four of the events featured energy and social development: Environment Energy and Social Development, and Social Development and Environment (Special event al the Social Summit), organized by INforSE and the Forum for Energy and Development, Denmark; Job Creation and Climate Change organized by A Seed and others; and a Sustainable Employment Seminar, organized by the Danish Association of Engineers and others. All of the events highlighted different aspects of energy and social development. The events showed a widespread understanding of the nexus between sustainable energy and other environmental technologies on one side as well as between social development and employment on the other side. It is obvious that this theme is gaining momentum.

During the NGO Forum, statements were made on behalf of the NGO Environmental Caucus and of a larger NGO Development Caucus. The Environmental Caucus made a Declaration on the right to Sustainable Societies, in which it criticises the official Declaration and Programme of Action for undermining its commitments to sustainable development by its "almost religious faith and devotion to the doctrine of 'sustained economic growth'....". It also "...urge promotion of the right of all peoples to

· sustainable development". The Development Caucus made "The Copenhagen Alternative Declaration" in which it criticises the economic framework adopted in the official Declaralion and Plan of Action for over-reliance on open, free-market forces. It also proposes "Effective international machinery to promote renewable energy should be installed in the UN system".