The Rio+20 Summit will fail if it
agrees to current proposals, which risk worsening the divide between
environment and development efforts, warned anti-poverty and environmental
campaigners. Agreement on Sustainable Development Goals is expected to be one
of the major outcomes from the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, which
starts on 20 June in Rio de Janeiro.
The UN has already begun to
deliberate on the post 2015 global development framework, starting with a
review of lessons learnt from the existing Millennium Development Goals and
options for after they expire in 2015. The current proposal on the table in Rio
would effectively create a second process for global goals in the post-2015
period. A separate process focused on the environment will not provide the
solution urgently needed to end poverty and inequality while protecting the
planet, said international agency Oxfam and the international campaigns, Beyond
2015 and the Global Campaign against Poverty (GCAP).
“Ending poverty and protecting the
environment are inextricably linked and cannot be addressed in isolation. The
current proposals are a recipe for diluted
commitment, duplicated effort, and dispersed focus,” said Antonio Hill
of Oxfam. “The world’s poorest people, who still suffer a lack of quality
healthcare and education, are also denied their fair share of water, land and
clean air. Poor people will be the first to lose out if Rio+20 fails to aim for
one set of goals for one planet. We need a single guiding framework whose
purpose is to end poverty and restore the living world that sustains us all. “
The groups believe that commitment
in Rio to a single process that brings together the Sustainable Development
Goals and the post-2015 development framework could represent a landmark
agreement to eradicate poverty and ensure prosperity for all by sharing the
Earth’s limited resources. But the move could fail if this integration does not
happen from the start. The groups also warn that the success of any future
goals hinge on the progress made towards ending poverty through the Millennium
Development Goals. “Governments in Rio are re-arranging the deck chairs on the
Titanic while 1.4 billion people still live in poverty, in a daily struggle for
food, water and energy. For these people environment and development are not
separate choices. We need a race to deliver the existing Millennium Development
goals, and a single framework to succeed them,” said Rajiv Joshi from GCAP.