Undemocratic, ineffective and weak - those words are on the minds of the more than 8,000 activists and observers arriving in Johannesburg for this week's World Summit on Sustainable Development.
Such negativity even before official proceedings begin is not surprising, given the attitude of powerful industrialised nations such as the United States, Canada and Australia towards issues like global poverty reduction and the environment. The feeling is that these countries will try to undermine the summit's aims of improving the lives and livelihoods of the world's people for the sake of their own economic objectives.
Passions are running high in South Africa's commercial capital. Dozens of protesters have already been arrested outside the summit venue, the Sandton Convention Centre, as they try to draw attention to their causes.
Delegations from developed-world governments are equally resolved to push their own blueprint for halving poverty while protecting the environment.
It is a classic North-South - or rich-poor - divide, a fight that has been brewing since the ground-breaking, but inconclusive, Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. A decade later, targets remain unmet and experts say there has been little, if any, progress on key issues.
A follow-up summit was a necessity to take stock of progress. Globalisation has become the catchword, the gap between rich and poor has widened markedly and the environment has become an important concern.
