Rio+20 Portal

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This briefing paper written by Sascha Gabizon is intended to provide up-to-date information and general analysis on the preparations for Rio +20. It is divided into four sections: Overview, Process and Politics, Communications, and Upcoming Meetings.

Overview

• The President of Brazil has proposed new dates for the Conference and for the Third PrepCom. She has discussed the dates already with the UN Secretary-General and has his support. Brazil will now introduce the new proposed dates into the ongoing discussions on the modalities for the Conference. The proposed dates are: PrepCom: 13-15 June. Conference: 20-22 June.
• The 1 November deadline for submissions has passed. Over 500 submissions were received. Not all have been processed and posted online as of yet, but will be in the coming days.
• Inputs will be discussed by Member States and other stakeholders at the December Intersessional in New York (15-16 December).
• The Secretary-General of the Conference, Sha Zukang, continues to refer to Rio +20 as an “Implementation Conference”. In that regard, he has been using three key words to describe what needs to lie at the core of Conference outcomes: Integration, Coherence and Implementation.
• Seven themes have emerged through the preparatory process thus far: jobs and social inclusion; energy (access, efficiency and renewables); water; oceans; agriculture and food security; disaster preparedness and resilience; sustainable cities.
• Four potential outcomes for Rio +20 are beginning to emerge as well: Sustainable Development Goals; a Green Economy Roadmap; establishment of a Sustainable Development Council; and, a strengthened UNEP.
• The UN Secretariat will launch an integrated communications strategy for the Conference on 22 November entitled: “The Future We Want”. The UN would ideally like to see the phrase picked up and used by stakeholders outside of the UN System as well.

Process and Politics

At a briefing for Member States on 4 November, the Secretary-General of Rio +20, Sha Zukang, announced that the Brazilian government has proposed to shift the dates of the Conference as well as the Third PrepCom. This was subsequently confirmed by the Ambassador of Brazil who announced the proposed dates as:  PrepCom: 13-15 June. Conference: 20-22 June. The Ambassador also reported that her President had spoken with the UN Secretary-General on this issue. This discussion will now shift to the Second Committee of the General Assembly where Member States are already negotiating the precise ‘modalities’ of the Conference. Presumably, Member States will accept the new dates as they have come at the request of the Host Country. These proposed dates also allow for maintaining the four days between the PrepCom and the Conference that have been discussed as an opportunity for the organization of other types of events.

The rationale given was only that the shift was in order to “ensure opportunity for participation at highest possible level.” Further discussion in the corridors confirmed that two factors may have played into the decision. The first is that these new dates would potentially coincide quite nicely with the next G-20 Summit, set to take place in Mexico as reports indicate that Mexico will host the Summit from 18-19 June 2012. The second, and to a lesser degree, was UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s recent announcement that he wouldn’t be able to participate at Rio due to conflicting dates with the Queen’s Jubilee. This may have further jeopardized the possibility of participation from

any Commonwealth country.

Following the conclusion of 4 of the 5 Regional Preparatory Meetings (only ECE remains, set to take place 1-2 December), as well as several additional meetings hosted by individual Member States, IGOs and civil society, the policy picture for the Conference is beginning to become somewhat clearer.

The various discussion strands have become concretized through the official submission process, which was closed on 1 November. Over 500 submissions were received with the vast majority of submissions coming from civil society. The Rio +20 Bureau (the committee of Member States providing guidance on the process), and the Co-Chairs in particular (Ambassadors of Korea and Antigua and Barbuda) are tasked with reviewing the inputs and using them as a basis for the “Zero Draft” of the Outcome Document of the Conference by mid-January. Negotiations will start in earnest at the end of January.

In the meantime, the Second Intersessional meeting of the process will be held on 15-16 December to allow for all Member States to have an opportunity to discuss the inputs received and to share their views on the what the structure, format and content of the outcome document should look like. The UN Secretariat (UN-DESA Division for Sustainable Development) is beginning to “index” all of the submissions received but, as of now, has been asked to not produce a synthesis text. All submissions are also searchable online: http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?menu=115

Integration, Coherence and Implementation: These three words have emerged as lying at core of the Conference outcomes – at least from the perspective of the Secretariat. In short, Integration refers to the need to combine sectors in the process of implementation (ie agriculture and water) as well as governance structures; Coherence refers to the need for the UN System, government ministries and other stakeholders to become more aligned in implementation; and, Implementation naturally refers to the need to better carry out the objectives that have been agreed since 1992.

Consensus is emerging around seven themes that Rio +20 should address: jobs and social inclusion; energy (access, efficiency and renewables); water; oceans; agriculture and food security; disaster preparedness and resilience; sustainable cities. However, outside of energy, what shape the discussions on these themes will take is less clear. The UN Secretary-General has taken the lead on the energy issue through the establishment of a High-level Group on Access to Sustainable Energy and he has already identified three objectives:  Ensuring universal access to modern energy services; Doubling the rate of improvement in energy efficiency; and, Doubling the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix.

In addition, four other potential outcomes have emerged from the process as well:

• Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs);
• Green Economy Roadmap;
• Establishment of a Sustainable Development Council;
• Strengthened UNEP.

SDGs: This discussion has obvious parallels with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the forthcoming review process that will define a post-2015 development framework. What is clear is that the current MDG framework does not do enough to address sustainable development in a holistic manner. The current framework is weak on the environmental pillar and, arguably, weak on the social and economic pillars as they relate to sustainability. Likely, there is too little time at this stage for Rio +20 to deliver on a new set of SDGs, it could identify a few (such as those the Secretary-General has proposed in relation to energy as well as the other six sectors previously identified) and agree on a process for further discussion. Even less clear is what relationship any outcome on SDGs would have with the official MDG review.

Green Economy Roadmap: The EU has been advocating for such a roadmap throughout the process. The idea is that such a roadmap could guide countries in the transition to a green economy by offering a menu of policy options for building green economy accompanied by a toolkit with best practices and lessons learned to facilitate learning from one another.

Establishment of a Sustainable Development Council (SDC): The motivation for such a Council is based on two basic premises: the current inter-governmental decision-making structure is inadequate in that it has failed to deliver meaningful implementation at scale and that it is isolated from other critical decision-makers outside of the environment and development spheres, such as Ministries of Finance. Therefore, the idea is to create a new, higher-level mechanism that is better integrated across sectors and would attract new actors. The legislative model for the SDC is the reformed Human Rights Council. An outcome of the 2005 World Summit, the Human Rights Council was created through a General Assembly decision rather than a re-opening of the UN Charter – which is viewed as politically unpalatable.

In relation to the SDC, many governments feel that it is also important to encourage similar kinds of synergies and structures at national and regional levels. Improving linkages between UN regional Commissions, Regional Development Banks and other institutions would be important from this perspective. Also gaining traction is the idea of national sustainable development councils that would integrate ministries around the priority of sustainable development.

Strengthened UNEP: While consensus on the exact nature or shape of a strengthened UNEP remains unclear, there is increasing agreement on the need for a strengthened actor on behalf of the environment in the international sphere and potentially to assist in country-level implementation efforts.

Last, on the issue of the “Green Economy in the Context of Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication”: The term “Green Economy” has been toxic for some throughout the process thus far. Indeed, at the ECLAC RPM, governments could not agree to use the term in the outcome of the meeting. However, other regions have been able to find consensus on the term on the basis of what it is not: namely, that countries hold national ownership over their own economy and any kind of ‘green transition’ and that it should not become a pretext for non tariff barriers to trade, increasing trade protectionism and aid conditionalities. In addition, it is essential that the concept be based on based on the principles of Rio, particularly the principle of ‘common but differentiated responsibilities’.

Communications

The UN will launch an integrated communications strategy on Rio +20 on 22 November at UNHQ in New York at an event with the Secretary-General. The campaign is being built around the slogan “The Future We Want”. The campaign will be accompanied by a website that will act as a bridge to other relevant sites and it is envisioned that the site will also host a “crowd-sourcing” exercise next year that will provide space for the global public to help craft a common vision of the future. A rendering of this future will be presented at the Conference.

The campaign will also be accompanied by seven “mini-campaigns” that correspond to the themes outlined previously. These remain at various stages of development.

Recent reports:

• UNDP 2011 Human Development Report: Sustainability and Equity: A Better Future for All. The 2011 Report argues that environmental sustainability can be most fairly and effectively achieved by addressing health, education, income, and gender disparities together with the need for global action on energy production and ecosystem protection.
• Social Protection Floor for a Fair and Inclusive Globalization.  Report of the Social Protection Floor Advisory Group chaired by Michelle Bachelet. In many ways the power of the social protection floor lies in its simplicity. The floor is based on the idea that everyone should enjoy at least basic income security sufficient to live, guaranteed through transfers in cash or in kind, such as pensions for the elderly and persons with disabilities, child benefits, income support benefits and/or employment guarantees and services for the unemployed and working poor.
• World Economic and Social Survey 2011: The Great Green Technological Transformation.  Produced annually by UN-DESA, the World Economic and Social Survey (WESS)is intended to provide objective analysis of pressing long-term social and economic development issues, and discusses the positive and negative impact of corresponding policies. To meet both the objectives of conquering poverty and protecting the environment, the 2011 WESS 2011 calls for a complete transformation of technology on which human economic activity is based.
• Forthcoming Official Release on 16 November: UNEP Green Economy Report: Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication. The report was prepared in collaboration with economists and experts worldwide. It demonstrates that the greening of economies is not generally a drag on growth but rather a new engine of growth; that it is a net generator of decent jobs, and that it is also a vital strategy for the elimination of persistent poverty. The report also seeks to motivate policy makers to create the enabling conditions for increased investments in a transition to a green economy.
• Rio +20 Issue Briefs. UN-DESA has begun to produce a series of briefing papers that will more closely examine some of the critical issues under discussion. So far, the papers address trade and the green economy and various proposals related to reforming the IFSD framework.

Upcoming Meetings of Interest

• UNCTAD Expert Meeting on the Green Economy: Trade and Sustainable Development Implications (8 – 10 Nov 2011; Geneva, Switzerland)
• Bonn 2011 Conference: The Water, Energy and Food Security Nexus (16 – 18 Nov 2011; Bonn, Germany)
• High Level Expert Meeting on the Sustainable Use of Oceans (28 – 30 Nov 2011; Monaco)
• Regional Preparatory Meeting for ECE Region (1 – 2 Dec 2011; Geneva, Switzerland)
• Eye on Earth Summit (12 – 15 Dec 2011; Abu Dhabi)
• 2nd Intersessional Meeting of UNCSD (15 – 16 Dec 2011; New York, USA)
• Initial discussions on the zero draft of outcome document (16 – 18 Jan 2012; New York)
• Thematic Social Forum – Social and Environmental Justice (preparatory for Rio+20) (24 – 29 January 2012; Porto Alegra, Brazil) note: website only in Portuguese, for now