I will be using a different blog from now on it can be found at http://earthsummit2012.blogspot.com/

Life after Rio+ and Stakeholder Forum

So after twenty years at Stakeholder Forum the old order changes. The photo above is taken at the 3rd End of Era Party, if you have to go why only one party!!! It is of Koy Thompson my predecessor as Executive Director of Stakeholder Forum and Farooq Ullah the new Executive Director.

It has been interesting to reflect on Rio+20 which i had worked on for the last four years. As people may have noticed the media and some NGOs were not positive about it, well not initially. There has been more thoughtful reflection since Rio by the media and NGOs. As John Vidal of the Guardian said
"So, in the light of the vast growth in global environmental awareness and technological change that has taken place in the past 20 years, and which is bound to grow in the next 20, here are a few good reasons to look back at Rio+20 and be a little more cheerful:"

A number of NGOs did attack Rio+20 but from a very ill informed position. The text may have been lacking in inspiration but then the input to the zero draft by NGOs and other stakeholders also lacked vision. The outcomes though were good.

We saw a game changer with the agreement for sustainable development goals, a process on resource mobilisation to help bring together the financial package for such goals. There was an agreement on a new high level political forum for sustainable development and a strengthening of UNEP. The financial commitments were more than those made ten years earlier in WSSD and we saw the World Bank announce a 50 country trial of natural accounts and the science community come together under the new Future Earth programme. And i could go on.

Of course 1992 delivered more but more preparation was done and the issue of sustainable development was rising under the aftermath of the Brundtland report and the agreement on the Montreal protocol. We enter Rio+20 process with sustainable development nearly dead and the failure of two Commissions on Sustainable Development and  the Copenhagen Climate Meeting.

Most roads now lead to 2015 and the work between now and then will be critical to deliver a new set of uniform goals and a new climate agreement.

As Stakeholder Forum final conference in Rio said its what happens on Monday that counts....every Monday. 

UN General Assembly Rio+20 debate

Panel I: How Can Rio+20 Foster the Global Development Agenda?

Panel II: The Role of the General Assembly in Supporting the Rio+20 Objectives

With the much-anticipated United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development just a month away, and with intergovernmental negotiations on an outcome mired in minutiae, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called today for ambitious leadership to seize this “once in a generation opportunity” to transform ideas and aspirations into bold action “for the sake of our planet and our children”.

“We do not have a moment to waste”, the Secretary-General said, opening the General Assembly’s informal thematic debate convened to re-energize talks on possible outcomes of the Conference — known as “Rio+20” after the Brazilian city that will host the event from 20 to 23 June.  The debate, “The Road to Rio+20 and Beyond”, featured two round-table discussions dealing with issues at the heart of the Rio process, including ways the event could foster the development agenda, the Assembly’s role in supporting its objectives, and effective ways to implement any agreements reached.

“The world is watching.  The media are focused.  People — young and old — are demanding action,” Mr. Ban said.  “Yet the current pace of negotiations is sending all the wrong signals.  We cannot let a microscopic examination of text blind us to the big picture”, he continued, saying the negotiators must seize the opportunity to forge agreements on vital thematic issues:  decent jobs; food security and sustainable agriculture; clean, efficient energy sources; access to safe drinking water and sanitation; conservation of the world’s oceans; and progress in defining sustainable development goals that built on the Millennium Development Goals.

With such a foundation, world leaders attending the Rio Conference should agree that sustainable development goals with clear and measurable targets and indicators would be a central part of the post-2015 global development framework, he said.  Such goals would give concrete expression to renewed high-level political commitment for sustainable development.  “It is time to focus on what really matters”, he said, adding:  “We are one month from building the future we want; a future of greater prosperity and equitable growth on a healthy planet.”

In his opening remarks, Assembly President, Nassir Abdulaziz al-Nasser, said that, after months of deliberations, “We are close; close to a once-in-a-generation opportunity to define the future of the 7 — soon to be 9 — billion people living on our planet.”  He thanked Member States for their collective efforts thus far, but with an international consensus emerging, more must be done.  “Creative solutions are needed to get people back to work.  Growth must resume.  Only a dynamic economy can cope with the challenges of transitioning to a more sustainable model of development,” he said.

With delegations from all over the world set to gather in New York next week for the final round of informal negotiations before heading to Rio, there were still crucial decisions to be made, he said.  Today’s debate was intended to shed further light on two important areas that had emerged thus far:  the sustainable development goals; and the institutional framework for sustainable development.  “If we want to have a positive impact on the development agenda post-2015, the Rio outcome should be framed around the three dimensions of sustainable development, the principle of equity and common but differentiated responsibility,” he said.

Further, Rio+20 could make a significant contribution to the United Nations development agenda without distracting from efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.  And while Rio offered a timely opportunity to tackle all the interlinked concerns, poverty reduction and progress in sustainable development should remain at the heart of a new post-2015 framework.  As for a strong institutional framework, he said the outcome must establish architecture that promoted better integration of sustainable development’s three dimensions — economic, social and environmental protection.  In the end, Member States should focus on “must haves”, rather that what would be “nice to have”.  “We need to ensure that the words on the pages of the Rio+20 outcome document have meaning.  Our planet and its peoples are counting on us,” he said.

Picking up that thread, Luiz Alberto Figueiredo Machado, Under-Secretary-General for the Environment, Energy and Science and Technology of the Ministry of External Relations of Brazil, said that the world faced challenges regarding all three of those dimensions.  In the environmental area, there were climate and biodiversity crises, financial turmoil in the economic sphere, and widespread unemployment and other crises in the social sphere.  That was partly the result of a model that was unable to cope with such crises and might even be generating them.  Protectionist measures and other constrictive strategies were part of that model and repeated past mistakes.  Investment should be made in growth, education and other areas, through a long-term focus on sustainable development.

“There are no easy journeys to that goal, but business as usual is no longer a choice”, he said, adding that there were different paths to sustainable development.  As such, Rio+20 would build on its historic predecessor, the 1992 Earth Summit, but from a different perspective.  Yet, the results of that earlier conference, especially its landmark action plan, known as Agenda 21, remained remarkably contemporary.  There must be “no retreat” from its principles, he said.  Civil society participation was key to the process to ensure that, as poverty was eliminated, future generations — and a growing world population — were accounted for.  Commitment to the full achievement of the Millennium Goals must be renewed within that framework, to help shape “the future we want”.

Kim Sook, Co-Chair of the Bureau for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, affirmed that a heavy responsibility fell on the international community to set things right for this generation by making the right decisions.  “We cannot afford empty words”, he added, urging that the outcome text be looked at critically as a guiding document for the next 20 years.  Essentials must be concentrated on which, with good governance, political will and other necessary factors could achieve the best future for the generations to come.

A good, quality outcome document would be a crucial indicator of the success of the Conference.  “This is the most important and critical month in our long voyage”, he said, calling for a spirit of compromise to produce a streamlined, action-oriented text.  “Let us get the job done, so that our Heads of State and Government can proudly show the results and contribute to a better future for all,” he said.

Throughout the day-long debate, experts and diplomats alike urged agreement on an outcome that was “ambitious” but “concise”, and which addressed a range of concerns, including decent jobs, energy, sustainable cities, food security and sustainable agriculture, water, and oceans.  Yet, Jeffery Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Colombia University, was among those stressing that all the details of sustainable development did not need to be resolved at Rio.  “That’s impossible, because many of them require local planning and decision-making,” he said, urging negotiators to see sustainable development not as “an event”, but an ethical approach to policymaking.  Following such a path, Rio+20 could place sustainable development at the core of the global agenda by adopting a set of “sustainable development goals”.

That idea was echoed by most of the participants, even though many cautioned about overlap with the watershed Millennium Development Goals process, which, they said, had for the first time galvanized the world around a shared agenda for eradicating poverty and hunger.  It also became clear that the sustainable development goals should be backed up by a follow-up mechanism.  Yet, one speaker said that the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was “already too weak” to take on that job, while another noted that the Commission on Sustainable Development was “a compromise between a higher-level body and nothing”.

Rubens Born, of the Brazilian NGO Vitae Civilis (Institute for Development, Environment and Peace), said that left the General Assembly to drive the transition to fair sustainable development and monitor follow-up Rio+20 commitments.  He also said that, by the end of the year, the Assembly could establish a United Nations agency for environmental sustainability, and a proposal for a high commissioner/ombudsman for future generations could be discussed in the next Assembly session.

The debate can be found online here

My presentation can be found here

Planet Under Pressure

The most important input front the science community is happening now at Planet Under Pressure nearly 3000 scientists in London to Rio+20. Watch online. Follow with Outreach the daily newsletter for Rio+20 preparatory sessions.

World Environment Day - One Year out from Rio+20

June 5th is World Environment Day. In an article by Juan Somavia and Achim Steiner Heads of the ILO and UNEP respectively on the BBC web site explores the role of the G8, Rio+20 and the role of the green economy.

Greenpeace have brought out a challenge for Rio+20 as have Christian Aid and Stakeholder Forum on Monday the 6th.

We are one year from Rio+20 and my prediction is that Rio will result in:

On Green Economy:

1. A set of principles for the Green Economy;
2. A set of Sustainable Development Goals with particular focus on sustainable development goals under the green sectors - Potentially 5-9 green economy sectors will be addressed. This would include energy, agriculture, urbanization, water, biodiversity. These could then be fed into the MDG Summit in 2015.

On Governance

1. In International Environmental Governance:
a. WEO: Probably not a WEO – maybe a process of clustering towards a point where governments feel comfortable with a WEO – this could be a 5-10 year processes starting with chemicals and biodiversity
b. Reform of UNEP with an Executive Board
2. In Sustainable Development Governance:
a. Sustainable Development Council: As the CSD isn’t working there is interest in the sustainable development council idea. This would upgrade the CSD to a Council of the UN GA similar to Human Rights. The Agenda for such a council might be new and emerging issues and part of Committee 2 of the UN GA might be folded into it.
b. IACSD: The re-establishing of the Interagency Committee on Sustainable Development to deal with UN coordination on SD.
c. Principle 10: The start of regional conventions on P10 starting with Latin America.

Many other issues are alive but this would be a firm outcome from 2012. Plus a convention on Corporate Environment and Soical Responsibility.

One Earth

The first prepcom for Rio+20 has finished and has given people much food for thought. The Summit will need to have some time to discuss the key issues: review of commitments, sustainable development governance, green economy and emerging issues.

On review of commitments there needs to be a list of those commitments taken from 1992 to now and where we are on implementing them. As we heard no country has delivered on the biodiversity target for this year. This follows a list of many others but we need to know where we are before new commitments are made.

On suustainable development governance -- there needs work on the global level reform of the CSD, financial instituions to mainstream sustainable development governace and maybe two conventions on corporate accountability and principle 10 of the Rio Declaration. Green Economy needs a strong social pillar and some principles and emerging issues is starting to focus on the environment and security agenda.

A lot to address in now 14 days of negotiations -- the addtion of 6 days by this prepcom will be a first stage expect more additions in future prepcoms.

Aril issue of MEA Bulletin article on Rio+20p

The April issue of MEA Bulletin has a guest article by Felix Dodds on Rio+20.

Stakeholder Forum and UN NGls to host Rio+20 Conference in New York on the 15th of May just before the first preparatory meeting. It will cover

• One Planet Living: Green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication
• Emerging Issues
• Scenarios for 2032
• Sustainable Development Governance
• Role of Stakeholders

Register through Hannah Stoddart at hstoddart (at) stakeholderforum.org

Revamped 2012 Web site launched

To help people and organizations keep abreast of 2012 developments the web site has undergone a transformation have a look at it click here.