A group of leading
international humanitarian, development, social justice, environmental, and
workers’ organizations warned last weekend that next month’s UN Conference on
Sustainable Development (Rio+20) looks set to add almost nothing to global
efforts to deliver sustainable development. The group also warns that too many
governments are using or allowing the talks undermine established human rights
and agreed principles such as equity, precaution, and ‘polluter pays.’ The warning from Development Alternatives, Greenpeace,
the Forum of Brazilian NGOs and Social Movements for Environment and
Development (FBOMS), International Trades Union Confederation (ITUC), Oxfam,
the Slow Food Movement and Vitae Civilis comes at the end of two weeks of
negotiations between governments on the conference outcomes, with less than 50
days before the summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 20 - 22 June.
“After four months of talks on the so-called ‘zero
draft’ outcome document, the Rio+20 talks are stuck at zero. Little or nothing
has emerged that will deliver on what governments agreed was needed 20 years
ago at the Earth Summit,” said Antonio Hill of Oxfam. “The 1992 Earth Summit was
a milestone that united development and environment efforts. The challenge set
then – to provide prosperity for all without exceeding ecological limits – is
even more urgent today. Now’s the time to end deforestation, achieve high seas
protection, and deliver the energy revolution – that is a future worth
choosing,” said Daniel Mittler of Greenpeace.
The group argues that the current financial crises,
growing inequalities, broken food system, global climate change and shrinking
natural resources require a new approach to economic development but the
current negotiating text offers just more of the same. Together with workers,
citizens, producers and consumers around the world, these organizations are
working to delivering well-being, economic equality, and a prosperity that
restores the natural environment upon which we all depend. “We hear the voices of citizens everywhere
calling for a better future. Millions of people are demanding their
rights and expecting fair and green solutions to poverty and suffering now. The
message is clear: it’s time to change course and put the future of people and
the planet first,” said Alison Tate of ITUC.
As a benchmark against which to assess what
governments achieve in Rio+20, the organisations have set out a 10-point agenda
for the global transformation urgently needed to deliver sustainable
development. They jointly call on governments to:
1. Agree an ambitious set of global goals for
sustainable development, designed to
eradicate poverty, reduce inequality, and realise justice and human rights
while respecting the finite limits of Earth’s natural resources.
2. Provide new and additional resources for sustainable development, including innovative
sources of public finance such as financial transaction taxes to tackle poverty
and climate change, and commit to far-reaching budget reforms, including
re-directing money from harmful subsidies towards sustainable fishing,
renewable energy access, and smallholder agriculture.
3. Enact reforms of the system of global governance to ensure strong institutions with real power to
enforce international rules and commitments on environment and development, and
launch talks on a global treaty to realise rights of public access to
information, greater participation, and access to justice, in order to
strengthen accountability and citizen monitoring of environmental and
development performance at the national, regional, and global levels.
4. Commit to invest a share of national income in green and decent jobs and sustainable livelihoods,
ensuring social equity, gender equality, trade union rights, democracy, and a
just transition from today’s economies.
5. Establish a universal Social Protection Floor to realize human rights and support decent living
standards worldwide, including allocating resources to establish an adequate
level of social protection in the least developed countries.
6. Agree a plan to move quickly towards sustainable
patterns of production and
consumption, including greater investment in small- and medium-scale
enterprises, producer cooperatives, and informal sectors, as well as public
procurement policies and incentives for fair and green products and services.
7. Agree a global framework of rules to strengthen
corporate reporting on social and
environmental impacts worldwide, consistent with the Rio Principles, the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and encompassing the full range of impacts
associated with corporate activities.
8. Kick-off a major shift towards adequate,
nutritious, and healthy food for all,
including policies and investments to support small farms, women producers, and
secure access to (and protection of) the water, land, soils, biodiversity, and
other resources upon which our food security depends.
9. Take decisive action to recover healthy, productive
and sustainable oceans – launch a new
agreement to protect high seas marine life under the UN Convention on the Law
of the Sea, and take steps to reverse over-exploitation, enable sustainable,
marine-based livelihoods, and guarantee abundant marine life for the future.
10. Provide fair and lasting energy solutions that put
poor people first and help cut
greenhouse gas pollution, including new financial and technical support to
developing countries that focuses on providing the full range of energy
services needed to help pull people out of poverty.
