The paper focuses on the effectiveness of the Action Plan accepted at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. The Action Plan aims at the solution of some of the debated global problems. So far, no worthwhile results can be detected in the winding-up of poverty and starvation. The rich countries usually do not transfer the expected 0.7% of their national income into the relief fund and the solidarity fund is not efficient in its work either. The favourable impacts of globalisation do not prevail in the poor countries because their institutional system is underdeveloped, political insecurity predominates them and there is no sufficient qualified labour force. A modest success of the global energy policy is the coming into force of the Kyoto Protocol. The global energy structure, however, requires more significant changes in favour of the renewable energies – if the aim is to mitigate the scale of climate change
