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Following the near collapse of the UN climate negotiations in December and the seeming paralysis of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in March, the whole idea of solving the world’s environmental problems through multilateral negotiations seems to be in crisis. But, argue Maurice Strong and Felix Dodds, another recent development holds out the promise of reversing the trend.

In two years’ time, Rio de Janeiro will host another Earth Summit – 20 years after the first. The idea was proposed in 2007 by Brazil’s President Lula da Silva at the UN General Assembly. It was clear to President Lula and to a growing number of others that the world has changed enormously since 1992, when the world agreed to Agenda 21 – the blueprint for creating a sustainable way of life in the 21st Century.
Rio 2012 could provide much-needed new momentum to international co-operation, not only on environment and sustainable development, but also on the problems that underpin the global financial crisis.

Broken promises
Most of the problems the world now faces have been on the international agenda for decades, some going back as far the Stockholm environmental conference in 1972. They have now reached more acute, crisis proportions – not as a result of the lack of proclaimed government commitments to action, but to their dismal performance in implementing their agreements. Indeed, if governments had implemented the many conventions, treaties and declarations they have negotiated from Stockholm to Rio to Kyoto to Johannesburg, we would be well along the road to sustainability.
Governments have done little to carry out their commitments, particularly as to helping finance developing countries’ movement towards sustainability. This failure has only added to the anger of most developing countries at the continued broken promises, and has undermined their ability to make commitments of their own.
As a result, we now face challenges on a number of fronts:

• Human societies are living beyond the carrying capacity of the planet

• Climate change has emerged as an out-of-control driver of many of the world’s environmental and economic crises
• The still-prevailing, consumption-based economic model is not only failing to deliver progress to enormous numbers of the world’s population, but is seriously threatening the economic stability of all nations, and compromising the prospect for any of us to live on this planet
• There is now an increasing link between environment and security
• Governments have still not given the UN the mandate, the resources or the institutional capacities required to monitor and enforce international agreements.

All of these issues can be positively influenced by Earth Summit 2012. But addressing them successfully will require an ambitious and creative agenda.
The UN General Assembly resolution last year which endorsed the summit, produced just that – including these areas of focus:

1. The green economy and poverty alleviation
The current economic model, which has brought unprecedented prosperity to the more developed countries, has only deepened the disparity between them and most developing countries. Its excesses now threaten the stability of the entire global financial system as well. The past 30 years have been characterised by irresponsible capitalism, pursuing limitless economic growth at the expense of both society and environment, channelling more and more money into fewer hands, with little or no regard for the natural resource base upon which such wealth is built.
The principal goal of our economy should be to improve the lives of all the world’s people and to free them from want and ignorance – without compromising the planet itself. An economy that integrates sustainable development principles with responsible capitalism can produce enough wealth to meet the needs of people in all nations, equitably and sustainably. Energy use based on fossil fuels is at the heart of the dilemma, and is the principal source of climate change which threatens the future of all.
Earth Summit 2012 can clearly draw a roadmap to set the world on the path to a new “green” economy that is sustainable, equitable and accessible to all, including the urgent transition to renewable energy.

2. Emerging issues
Environmental and security issues are becoming increasingly intertwined. The “environment-security/insecurity nexus” covers such overlapping issues as climate, energy, ecosystem destruction, food, water, health and environmental refugees. At the Copenhagen climate summit, Bangladesh’s Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith said he expected 20 million environmental refugees to be fleeing his country by 2050, and warned that developed countries would have to accommodate many of them. Are those countries ready? Earth Summit 2012 can develop a new blueprint to address the environmental and security challenges, defining positive and encouraging ways in which people can work together in addressing them.

3. Sustainable development governance
The present global institutions are inadequate to deal with the Earth’s major challenges. As most of the necessary changes are economic in nature, primary responsibility for decision making cannot be made by environmental ministries. They will continue to be vested in the ministries’ of finance, development and trade. To ensure that these decisions have the required environmental input, it is essential that environmental ministries and agencies have a place at the table and the capacities to ensure that the economic decisions will produce the necessary transition to sustainability. Earth Summit 2012 should agree on strengthening and upgrading the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which should be the most influential champion of the global environment.

Climate change
What else should we expect from Earth Summit 2012? Climate change is the biggest single challenge humans have ever faced. It is the greatest security risk we have ever faced; and as a global phenomenon, we face it together.
Earth Summit 2012 can provide a high-profile forum to complete and sign the comprehensive climate change agreement that must emerge from the wreckage of Copenhagen. What Copenhagen has shown us is that for an effective summit, we need to follow the Rio model of establishing a separate secretariat and secretary-general for the conference. This would have the aim and mandate to involve and engage the capacities of the entire UN system, ministers, heads of governments, as well as all key stakeholders. The number of stakeholders across the field has grown hugely in the years since Rio 1992. The new summit can provide an active demonstration of a participatory democratic model, which brings together all those who can contribute to implementation of the decisions taken.

Common future?
Since 1992, awareness of the Earth’s environmental challenges has become universal. What is lacking is the will of governments to act. Supported, indeed driven, by an aware and actively committed public, governments must and can act decisively. Earth Summit 2012 needs to utilise communications media assertively and creatively – to engage the global public in a global conversation on how we are able to live on this “one planet” together.
In this, the young people of the world need to take a lead. It is their future that an unsustainable approach to development and society threatens and their knowledge and creativity which will drive the innovations and consumption habits that will deliver sustainable lifestyles. Their knowledge of the new media, their networking and leadership skills needs to be engaged to get whole communities aware of what is at stake at the Earth Summit 2012. It presents a unique platform for negotiating the co-operation needed to achieve a new deal between North and South, between rich and poor and between present and future generations. A co-operation that is critical to the future of all people on the planet; and a co-operation that, this time, we must persuade our governments to achieve.

Maurice Strong was Secretary General of the first UN environment conference, in Stockholm in 1972, and of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit
Felix Dodds is Executive Director of Stakeholder Forum which champions civil society involvement in Earth Summit 2012

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PREPARATIONS FOR 2012 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE KICK OFF

New York, 18 May (Chee Yoke Ling and Saradha Iyer)
Preparations began on Monday for a United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012 to review the implementation progress and gaps of the historic outcomes of the 1992 “Rio de Janeiro Summit” on environment and development as well as other relevant UN meetings.

INTRODUCTION: On 24 December 2009, the UN General Assembly, at its 64th session, adopted Resolution 64/236 that decided “to organize in 2012 a Conference on Sustainable Development at the highest possible level, including Heads of State and Government or other representatives”.
The Conference objective is “to secure renewed political commitment for sustainable development, assessing the progress to date and the remaining gaps in the implementation of the outcomes of the major summits on sustainable development and addressing new and emerging challenges“.

[The main outcomes include the Rio Declaration of the Conference on Environment and Development and Agenda 21 adopted by heads of state and government in 1992 as well as the Convention on Biological Diversity, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, the 2002 Johannesburg Plan of Action adopted at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, and the commitments and action plans from the 1995 World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen, the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, the 2002 International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, the 2008 Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development to Review the Implementation of the Monterrey Consensus in Doha and the 2009 UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development.]

The focus of the 2012 Conference “will include the following themes to be discussed and refined during the preparatory process: a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication and the institutional framework for sustainable development …”
The Conference is to result in “a focused political statement”.

1st PREPCOM – a three-day meeting at the UN headquarters in New York (17-19 May) to set out the roadmap that culminates in a conference to be hosted again by Brazil that was host to the 1992 Rio Summit.
On 1 April 2010, the UN Secretary-General’s 30-page report titled “Progress to date and remaining gaps in the implementation of the outcomes of the major summits in the area of sustainable development and analysis of the themes for the Conference” was released, which is a background paper for the first preparatory meeting.
It called for reviving the Spirit of Rio 1992 but did not make any reference to the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities” that underlies the Agenda 21, Rio Declaration and UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Mr. Sha Zukang, who has been appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to head the Conference Secretariat, made a surprisingly passionate pledge in his statement at the opening plenary of the Preparatory Committee, to ensure that the intergovernmental process will be transparent, democratic and open. He emphatically stressed that Member States must take the lead, rejected turf conflicts among UN agencies and called for any manipulation of the process to be reported to him and exposed. Mr. Sha emphasized that the General Assembly decided to convene the Rio+20 Conference, not as a commemorative event, but to renew political commitment to sustainable development, to identify gaps in implementation and to address new and emerging challenges. He underscored that given that only eight days have been allotted over a two-year period for the inter-governmental Preparatory Committee to meet, it was important to be efficient and that already planned summits will and should be used as building blocks for Rio +20. He pledged to fully mobilize the UN machinery and to strive toward coherent and coordinated Inter-Agency inputs into the process from all levels.
In a departure from his prepared statement, he made a promise that “I will conduct business in an absolutely transparent, democratic and open manner”. This was welcomed by many government delegations and non-governmental speakers.
[Mr Sha, a career diplomat from China, is currently Under-Secretary General in the UN for Economic and Social Affairs whose duties include responsibility for the follow-up to the major UN Summits and Conferences.]
He said that “We are meeting against the backdrop of multiple crises. The financial turmoil and its aftermath continue to reverberate throughout the world economy. Food insecurity, as well as lack of access to modern energy services, along with volatility in energy prices, continues to loom large in the lives of millions of vulnerable people. On a global scale, climate change, land degradation, loss of biodiversity, and water shortages, are some of the cross-border challenges threatening prospects for long-term growth and sustainable livelihoods. The sad truth is that despite two centuries of spectacular growth on our planet, we have failed to eradicate the scourge of poverty … If we continue on our current path we will bequeath material and environmental poverty, NOT PROSPERITY, to our children and grandchildren”.
He said further that “Our stopgap solutions in response to these crises, with short-term timeframes and sector-based approaches, can no longer suffice in tackling the multiple crises. Only sustainable development, with its inherent emphasis on inter-linkages to address social, economic and environmental challenges in a balanced and integrated manner, can provide long-term and durable solutions to the crises”.
Ambassador John Ashe of Antigua and Barbuda and Ambassador In-kook Park of South Korea are the Co-Chairs of the preparatory process leading up to the 2012 Conference. They are members of the Conference Bureau that also comprise governmental officials from Argentina, Botswana, Croatia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Italy, Pakistan and the United States. These Bureau members are nominated by their respective UN-denominated regions to represent those regions. Brazil, as the Conference host, is an ex officio member.

Group of 77 and China: Ambassador Abdullah M. Alsaidi of Yemen spoke on behalf of the Group of 77 and China. He said that “an overview of the results achieved since the landmark Conference of 1972, the Earth Summit in 1992 and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, show that a persistent implementation gap, and many commitments by the international community have not been fully met at the time when the world is still suffering from the repercussion of the combined global food crisis, energy crisis and global economic and financial crisis and climate change”. The Group emphasized “the need for more holistic approach towards sustainable development. Consequently, a refinement of strategies and sharper policy perspectives aimed at effective implementation of the outcomes of the major summits on sustainable development, especially at the regional and national level complemented by stronger and effective international mechanisms in terms of global and regional support as well as significantly greater financial commitments, is essential”.
On the green economy concept, the Group said that there is not, at this moment, a clear and consensual definition of what that approach entails. “Reports, declarations and discussion assume that a green economy’ can be equated with a cluster of economic policies, under the sustainable development paradigm, so as to bridge the gap between the economy and the environment. However, this assumption is far from settled”.
The Group stressed that “an understanding of the scope and possible benefits of a green economy’ approach, a well as its risks and costs, is necessary to avoid replicating a discussion on the interrelationship between environment, economy and society, or on the distinctions between the development challenges facing the developing world and the situation of developed countries, that was conceptually concluded 18 years ago in (Rio).
“Moreover, in the Nusa Dua Declaration, environment ministers set the context of the concept of the green economy in relation to the environment pillar of sustainable development and acknowledged the need to further define it. We must also explore its relationship to the economic and social pillars of sustainable development”. [The Nusa Dua Declaration was adopted at the February 2010 meeting of the UNEP Global Ministerial Environment Forum in Bali, Indonesia.]
On the issue of the institutional framework for sustainable development, the second theme of the 2012 Conference, the Group said that an effective framework at all levels is key to the implementation of Agenda 21 and the outcomes of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development and to meeting emerging sustainable development challenges.
It said that while there is international consensus on the need for enhanced coordination and cooperation among international organisations and environmental agreements, there remain divergent views on how to do so in the current UN system in the area of sustainable development.
The Group identified new and emerging sustainable development issues to include: the financial and economic, food and energy crises, climate change, biodiversity, desertification, water scarcity, frequency of disasters and the need to prepare for and recover from disasters.
The Group welcomed Mr. Sha’s candour and called on the Co-Chairs of the preparatory process to establish a transparent and inclusive inter-sessional process, i. e. open-ended working groups that would allow for work between the first and second preparatory meetings (the latter will be in February 2011). Developing countries are concerned that the eight days allocated for the preparatory committee are insufficient.

Spain, on behalf of the European Union, reiterated that sustainable development was the most important challenge of our times, a top priority for the EU and called for an ambitious action-oriented outcome in Rio 2012, building on the work of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), and avoidance of overlapping with other review processes. It also called for confidence building. The EU said the Conference should develop a common understanding of “green economy” and explore how a green economy can eradicate poverty. The EU said the Preparatory Committee at this first meeting should give guidance and a clear roadmap and time table in addition to the list of documents required for the second preparatory meeting.

Canada, on behalf of the CANZ group (Canada, Australia and New Zealand), outlined its views on the two themes, saying that green economy and institutional framework for sustainable development were identified as important issues and challenges since 1992. It said that these would need to be considered in greater detail and discussions should arrive at a common understanding. The group urged focused discussion and effective use of limited time allotted for the preparatory process. It said that the Rio 2012 process should focus on the work of the CSD and that there should be no duplication with other review processes. The preparatory work should see how other relevant review processes can support the Rio 2012 process.

[Among the ongoing UN work are implementation reviews of the Millennium Development Goals and the Mauritius Strategy for the Further Implementation of the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States as well as the Ad Hoc Working Group to follow up on the Outcome of the UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development.]

Brazil, as host country for the 2012 Conference, pledged its full cooperation. Ambassador Luiz Machado said that sustainable development can be achieved by rekindling the Rio Spirit, that Rio 2012 would build on the success of its predecessors and that the goal of UN Member States should be to recommit and follow through their commitments. He said that governments do not need to engage in a theoretical debate and added that the Conference can be successful by honestly assessing the implementation gaps including the evolution of many thorny issues such as means of implementation (finance and technology transfer). He called for an institutional framework for sustainable development in particularly to be at the UN level and actions to support the three pillars of sustainable development at the national level (environment, social and economic pillars).

Switzerland said that Rio 1992 occurred in the last century and last millennium and that there was a need to take stock and reflect changes over the last 20 years. The statement also emphasized the need to pay greater attention to the MDGs and environment protection pillar of sustainable development. On the green economy, it said a road map was required to guide all countries towards a sustainable future.

Japan called for a new spirit of partnership between North and South to protect the planet and a compelling message in the political document that would come out of the Conference.

Venezuela emphatically called for an evaluation of the green economy proposal and insisted that it should not become an alternative concept to sustainable, saying there should be “No privatization of nature”.

The US said that Rio +20 could well be “Rio for twenty somethings”, underscoring the importance of engaging stakeholders especially young people. The statement emphasized the US’ commitment to addressing climate change, food security, protecting global health, the marine environment, and called for the integration of the three pillars into each economic activity. On new and emerging challenges, it cited the need to invest in human capital through education. On the green economy, it mentioned as priorities clean energy, resource efficiency and job training. On institutional framework, it said national and local level implementation was just as important.

UNEP Executive Director Mr. Achim Steiner started off by saying that Member States had chosen the green economy as a theme and that it was the most promising solution. He said it has given rise to many debates and perhaps that is good. He insisted it was not an ideology and is inherently economic and can build bridges. He said it is a concept that fits absolutely into the sustainable development agenda – resources would be used efficiently and there should be equity in doing so. Mr. Steiner added that risks will have to be faced and that concerns on trade barriers and new conditionalities (arising from a green economy) should be addressed.

Ms Veerle Vandeweerd of the UNDP said that balanced and integrated finance, social and environmental development is needed more than ever. She said that “Too often we have been dealing with the concept of sustainable development in a way that became synonymous with environmental sustainability’”.

On the green economy theme, she said that it offers an opportunity to reach out to and engage finance and social ministries as well as international finance and developmental organizations in a different kind of process.

UNDP hopes that the institutional theme will also focus on the broader institutional landscape. While strengthening the environmental pillar should continue, there is a need to expand the scope of the discussion to encompass finance, social and development institutions at all levels and address how to improve coherence of the full multilateral development system, including UN system-wide coherence.

All government speakers strongly supported the effective participation of civil society groups and stakeholders in the preparatory process and the 2012 Conference itself.

20 May 2010
Third World Network
Dear friends and colleagues,
The United Nations General Assembly in a 2009 Resolution A/64/236 decided that a UN Conference on Sustainable Development will be held in 2012. Brazil has offered to host this Conference, 20 years after it hosted the landmark 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development attended by Heads of State and Governments (the “Earth Summit”).
The objective of the 2012 Conference is “to secure renewed political commitment for sustainable development, assessing the progress to date and the remaining gaps in the implementation of the outcomes of the major summits on sustainable development and addressing new and emerging challenges. The focus of the Conference will include the following themes to be discussed and refined during the preparatory process: a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication and the institutional framework for sustainable development” – paragraph 20(a) of the Resolution.
The Conference “will result in a focused political document” – paragraph 20(b) of the Resolution.
A Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) of UN Member States within the framework of the Commission on Sustainable Development was set up and the first meeting took place in New York on 17-19 May 2009. The preparatory process is open to accredited NGOs and other non-governmental groups.
The Resolution in the 6 UN languages and documents of the PrepCom 1 meeting are available on:

http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/rio20/resources/perpcomm1_doc_UNCSD_rio_plus_20.shtml

Continue reading »]]> This hub is for collecting educational material connected to sustainable development.

Therefore we want your help in generating and creating the material, workshops and presentations which can be used to educate today’s youth and empower them to create their own campaigns and push for sustainable development.

What is Needed

• Presentations
• Workshop Plans
• Lesson Plans
• Background Information

Age Range and Knowledge

Looking for material that is suited for teenagers and those that are within their twenties.
We don’t need university in-depth type essay’s, or dissertations. What we are looking for, is material that suits group discussion, how to take action today and is full of the skills and knowledge needed to be a sustainable development leader.

Type of Material

• Booklets
• Video
• Links to website that also hold sustainable development education material
• Blogs and articles that give a good background on sustainable development issues and it’s history.

How to Send in your Material

Send all your stuff to Simon Howlett  – rio@peacechild.org who works at Peace Child International.

Continue reading »]]> High youth unemployment and shrinking opportunities for us to live like our parents mean that we are a generation blighted with an uncertain future. Climate change, world debt & peak fossil fuels are not separate issues with separate solutions: we have to solve them together – and by finding those solutions will generate enough jobs for all of us

Download the Youth Unemployment poster

Continue reading »]]> In 50 years, fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas – will have become so scarce or so expensive, we won’t be able to use them to heat our homes, turn on the lights or switch on the TV. However governments still spend billions in subsidies to help the fossil fuel industry, no matter what the environmental consequences

Download the Fossil Fuels poster

]]> http://rioplus20education.info/?feed=rss2&p=87 0 http://rioplus20education.info/?p=140 http://rioplus20education.info/?p=140#comments Mon, 20 Feb 2012 17:11:05 +0000 simon http://rioplus20education.info/?p=140

Continue reading »]]> The Graph shows that ALL of the world’s fishing grounds are now fully exploited and more than half are close to collapse. Still governments spend $27 billion dollars a year subsidising industrial fishing fleets which means that remaining fishing grounds will be fished out even faster; this in turns effects ecosystems all over the world

EDUCATION POSTER

 

 

Open publication - Free publishing

Download the Fishing Grounds poster.

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Continue reading »]]> As companies and governments focus on financial profits and GDP, even after a financial crises – Austerity hits those who did not cause it and global debt continues to rise. The gap between rich and poor grows wider and the poor get poorer; while us and future generations face paying off our parents debt for the rest of our lives

EDUCATION POSTER

Download the Debt poster

Continue reading »]]> Famine and starvation are on the rise again driven by the cost of oil, climate change and water shortages. Between 1950 – 2000, human water use tripled, draining many rivers, lakes and aquifers. 2.8 billion people now live in water stressed areas – a number that will rise to over 4 billion by 2025. Future wars may be fought over the world’s dwindling food and water resources.

Download the Food & Water poster.