Last week, global attention focused on the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, which hosted the long-awaited United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, commonly dubbed ‘Rio+20’.
The event took place from 20 to 22 June and provided a forum for governments, international institutions and various other groups to breathe new life into global commitments for sustainable development.
This year’s summit brought together over 40,000 participants as well as some 100 government leaders. Talks revolved around a wide range of issues, including the reduction of poverty, social equity and environmental protection. The aim was to renew global ambitions for a sustainable future, whilst measuring progress and identifying the challenges that lie ahead.
The Rio+20 summit was the largest United Nations conference in history. But it was not the first of its kind. As the name suggests, this year’s event marked the 20th anniversary of its famous forerunner – the 1992 Rio Earth summit. This summit is widely hailed as a landmark conference at which global leaders made vital commitments to tackle climate change, desertification and the loss of biodiversity.
Inspired by the great success of its precursor, the international community had high hopes that this year’s summit would yield equally path-breaking outcomes.
The European Union played an active role in the negotiations in Rio. It went into the conference with an ambitious agenda, set to convince global leaders of the urgent need to embrace a path towards sustainable growth.
In a nutshell, the EU aimed to reach concrete and binding targets for the protection of resources and the transition towards a ‘green economy’. It further advocated an expansion of the powers of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which currently coordinates the UN’s environmental activities. The European Union called for the status of this institution to be raised to that of a UN agency, thereby giving it more influence and power to oversee treaties.
As the summit came to a close, there was general disappointment at the fact that these ambitious goals were not achieved. The conference produced an outcome document entitled ‘The Future We Want’, which was signed by the global leaders who attended the event. Yet, this document has been criticised as containing a compilation of pledges, rather than setting out the binding commitments that the EU had pushed for. Environmentalists and anti-poverty campaigners lamented the fact that it lacked the necessary ambition to tackle the emergencies that this planet faces. The conference further fell short of expanding the sway of the United Nations Environment Programme to the extent envisaged by the EU.
Nonetheless, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon praised the summit as a success. He welcomed the adoption of the final document, which he described as the bedrock for economic, social and environmental prosperity.
In his statement, the Secretary General also drew attention to what is considered to be the principal outcome of the summit – the decision to define so-called Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The exact nature of these goals is to be decided by September 2013, though the basic intention is to provide a stronger international framework that underpins sustainable development. Mr Ban further applauded the fact that “nearly 700 commitments worth hundreds of billions of dollars” had been announced by the participants – an action that he described as “part of a global movement for change”.
Indeed, some changes were already observed at the Rio+20 summit. In striking contrast to its 1992 precursor, corporate world participation was high. Back in 1992, hardly any companies joined the negotiating table. This year, however, the presence of corporate representatives was hard to overlook as many of the world’s biggest companies attended the conference in order to demonstrate their dedication to the green agenda. A group of 24 firms seized the opportunity to announce a joint commitment to increase the protection of ecosystems. This is seen by some as a sign that companies are increasingly aware of the importance of integrating sustainability into every day business.
In his statement on the adoption of the outcome of the Rio Conference, EU Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik emphasised the need for our community to actively implement the pledges made in the outcome document of the conference. He welcomed the importance granted to the ‘green economy’ as an engine for sustainability and poverty eradication, describing it as “an important step in the right direction”.
Rio+20 may not have produced the ambitious results many in the EU were hoping to see. This, however, should not lead European leaders to capitulate in the face of the challenges ahead. It should be taken as a reminder of what remains to be done and act as a powerful driver towards a more sustainable future.