Protecting the environment is always a popular issue -- until hard choices have to be made. There has been a series of international conferences on the issue, but they have yielded little real progress. In Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and in Kyoto in 1997, attempts to set international standards for environmental protection collapsed under the weight of public expectations and political considerations. The Earth Charter Commission is trying a new tack. Last week, the group released a model code of conduct for business and public affairs and will push for the United Nations to endorse it by 2002.

The 16-point Earth Charter is modeled after such bold statements as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Its guidelines pledge to "respect earth and life in all its diversity," while creating "democratic societies that are just, sustainable, participatory and peaceful." Among the members of the Earth Charter Commission are such luminaries as Cochairman Maurice Strong, who was former secretary general of the 1992 Earth Summit, Mr. Mikhail Gorbachev, former head of the Soviet Union, Mr. Ruud Lubbers, former prime minister of the Netherlands, and Diet member Wakako Hironaka.

While such documents are sometimes derided as empty statements, they provide a rallying point for governments, activists and businesses. They set benchmarks, gradually achieving greater weight and genuine status in international society. The idealistic declarations of a half-century ago, for example, were the starting points for the genocide charges leveled against former Chilean strongman Augusto Pinochet and provide a foundation for the international war-crimes tribunals that are now in session.