S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 The organizers of Rio+20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, wants to encourage the participation of civil society in the meeting, which is due June in Rio de Janeiro. For such, April 16th will see the launch of a digital platform for discussion of matters pertaining to the event.<\/p>\n
According to ambassador embaixador Andr\u00e9 Corr\u00eaa do Lago, Brazil\u2019s chief negotiator for the conference, the www.riodialogues.org website was developed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in partnership with 27 universities in Brazil and abroad, and is capable of gathering up the opinions and proposals of up to 400,000 people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea is for the platform to be as open as possible,\u201d said the diplomat, adding that the number of participating universities and the user capacity can be expanded. Lago gave a seminar on Rio+20 to journalists this Tuesday (10th) in S\u00e3o Paulo.<\/p>\n
The topics selected for discussion are: oceans, food and food security, sustainable development to fight poverty, sustainable development as an answer to the economic and financial crisis, sustainable energy for all, water, the economy of sustainable development, sustainable cities and innovation, unemployment, dignified labour and migration.<\/p>\n
The proposals discussed in this e-forum, according to Lago, will then be voted on at a meeting of civil society representatives during the conference.<\/p>\n
The ambassador explained that Rio+20 will be held in two parts, each lasting three days. The first part will be dedicated to the completion of negotiations for the event\u2019s final agreement, and the second part will consist of meetings between heads of state and government. In between these two sections, there will be \u201cfour days of dialogue on sustainable development for the civil society to discuss key subjects, without the participation of governments or UN representatives.\u201d The debate will take place at Rio Centro, the same venue as the conference\u2019s, and does not preclude other meetings organized by the civil society at other locations in Rio.<\/p>\n
Lago stated that during the debate, ten topics which are \u201cimportant for the future\u201d will be selected for submission to the heads of state at Rio+20, with three recommendations. The ambassador underscored that the idea for this four-day debate came from Brazil. \u201cThe Brazilian government wants to increase the impact [of civil society\u2019s participation in the conference] and is developing this dialogue with support from the UN,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want to replicate what happened at the Rio 92,\u201d he added, referring to the United Nations Conference on Environment, held 20 years ago in Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n
Pillars <\/b> <\/p>\n
Regarding the conference itself, Lago insisted that the meeting is not geared towards discussing the environment, but rather at discussing two matters deemed essential by the UN: the green economy within the context of sustainable development, and the eradication of poverty and international governance for sustainable development. All of this, according to him, from the perspective of the environmental, economic and social \u201cpillars.\u201d <\/p>\n
One of the challenges, according to the diplomat, is exactly to define what \u201cgreen economy\u201d is. To the bzan government, according to him, it is an \u201cinclusive economy, an instrument for the strengthening and acceptance of sustainable development from an economic standpoint,\u201d i.e. activities that are at once either harmless or beneficial to the environment, socially sustainable, and profitable.<\/p>\n
Another challenge resides in \u201chow to deal with the UN\u2019s structure\u201d in order to organize the green economy on a global scale. A sustainable development commission was established after Rio 92, however according to Lago it is \u201cineffectual.\u201d \u201cWe must create a structure that will work better in the future,\u201d he said. What structure that would be, however, is yet to be decided on. <\/p>\n
The conference may mandate the setting of \u201csustainable development goals,\u201d just as the UN devised the Millennium Development Goals. The goals themselves, though, should not be set at the meeting. According to Lago, Rio+20 will focus on \u201cprocesses\u201d and not figures. \u201cThere will be no debates on reducing [carbon dioxide] emissions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He gave a few examples of important topics to be discussed, such as fighting unsustainable production and consumption standards, public transportation, and energy. \u201cThis will be an extraordinary incentive to technological innovation,\u201d he said. To the diplomat, the growth of developing countries, and the resulting rise of millions of people to the middle class, is \u201cproviding scale\u201d for the introduction of technologies which were considered expensive in the past. <\/p>\n
\u201cNegotiations [within the scope of the UN] are progressing towards the document which will launch these processes,\u201d he claimed. \u201cRio+20 is more of the beginning than the culmination of processes, as was Rio 92,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Lago also claimed that Brazil negotiations in a bloc, alongside the G77 plus China, a group of developing countries currently presided over by Algeria. Thus, the country is faced with the \u201cchallenged with constant improvement in this agenda, showing what it has done, and learning up-to-the-minute items in the sustainable development agenda. \u201c<\/p>\n
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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