09/07/2012

An inconclusive meeting | China Daily Asia Pacific

Monday July 09 2 01 2

SEARCH

Advanced Search

Home

News

Business

Opinion

Lifestyle

Asian Leaders

Roundtable

PeakView

An inconclusive meeting
By KARL WILSON June 29, 2012 - 12:09pm http://w w w .chinadailyapac.com

Font Size:

They came, they ate and they left. An estimated 50,000 people, including world leaders, politicians, scientists, activists and NGOs, descended on Rio de Janeiro from June 20-22 for the United Nations Rio+20 Earth Summit. It was in Rio in 1992 where world leaders had gathered for the first United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, better known as the Earth Summit. This landmark meeting resulted in conventions on climate change, biodiversity and desertification. In the 20 years since that first meeting, virtually every key indicator has gone backwards, including greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity. Some would argue it has been two decades of failure. Of the 90 environmental goals, there has been genuine progress on just four, such as fixing the ozone layer and removing lead from fuel. Greenhouse gas emissions have accelerated almost 40 percent since 1992, and biodiversity loss has increased a further 10 percent. Leading conservation organizations are predicting that 25 percent of all mammals, corals and freshwater fishes globally could be extinct by the end of the century. The International Energy Agency says the planet is on course for a three to six degree rise in global temperatures by the end of the century. At the end of this years summit, the best the world leaders could do was to agree on a 53-page statement full of promises but empty in details. Executive director of Greenpeace International, Kumi Naidoo, dubs the statement as the longest suicide note in history. It fails on equity; fails on ecology; fails on economy in short it (Rio+20) is a failure of epic proportions. We must now work together to form a movement to tackle the equity, ecology and economic crises being forced on our children. The only outcome of this summit is justifiable anger, an anger that we must turn into action. Richard Dennis of the Australia Institute describes Rio+20 as a summit cemetery. It is where the hopes of the environment go to die, he tells ABC Radio. Gro Harlem Brundtland, former prime minister of Norway and chair of the Brundtland Commission, which brought the concept of sustainable development to world attention 25 years ago, says: The Rio+20 declaration does not do enough to set humanity on a sustainable path, decades after it was agreed that this is essential for both people and the planet. I understand the frustration in Rio today, she says in a statement. We can no longer assume that our collective actions will not trigger tipping points, as environmental thresholds are breached, risking irreversible damage to both ecosystems and human communities. These are the facts. Different actions Others were, however, more guarded in their criticism. Climate and sustainability specialist with the Australian National University in Canberra, Fitrian Ardiansyah, says two different actions have to be distinguished those taken by world leaders and those taken by community leaders, corporations, local governments and even some countries. Even prior to Rio+20, there was a sense world leaders would not agree on anything substantive, he tells China Daily Asia Weekly. Ardiansyah says the real challenge facing world leaders is trying to gain a binding, global consensus on ways to save the planet: Because we face so many different issues from so many countries, the best world leaders could achieve in Rio was a statement of non-binding aspirations. Away from the main negotiations in Rio, he says a great deal was seen and heard on how sustainable development can be done and achieved: So if we assess Rio+20 based on the consensus (or lack of it) achieved by the world leaders, we may conclude that it did not reach its goal. But if we see the dynamics outside and the showcase by different non-state actors (or even state actors individually, bilaterally or at regional level), we can still be optimistic. Financial support for sustainable development, environmental protection and green economy has been pledged, says Ardiansyah, adding that collaborative works among corporations, NGOs and other institutions have been continued and further promoted. Local governments have also shown that they can contribute to this good cause. In 1992, world leaders pushed by a lot of organizations agreed on the basic foundation to promote sustainable development. Since then, many collaborative works have been created, continued, magnified and replicated. Sustainable forestry through certification to combat illegal logging is one example. Sustainable marine activities and fisheries and responsible agriculture have been addressed and promoted. Large-scale, medium-scale as well as community-based conservation and sustainable natural resource management have also been recognized. Corporations too have been gradually taking part in the cause of sustainable development by changing their policies or increasing corporate responsibility while many governments have increased transparency in such things as environmental management, says Ardiansyah. The challenge now, according to him, is whether the current rate of change towards sustainability is fast and sufficient enough to catch up and reverse

A street child in Mumbai, India. Hunger and poor nutrition among children remains a major concern in many countries. (AFP)

www.chinadailyapac.com/article/inconclusive-meeting

1/3

09/07/2012
the damage done to the environment.

An inconclusive meeting | China Daily Asia Pacific

Dominic Waughray, senior director and head of environmental initiatives with the World Economic Forum (WEF), says the Rio+20 summit was not just about environmental issues. It was also about economic and social issues as well, he tells China Daily Asia Weekly. Many social dimensions of the Millennium Development Goals remain unmet, he says. Pressing challenges While noting some successes in fighting malaria and tuberculosis, Waughray says hunger and poor nutrition among children is still a major concern in many parts of the world. More attention needs to be paid to gender equality and empowerment for women and girls; child mortality and improving maternal health; sanitation and the universal access to HIV/AIDS drugs. Jobs and income inequality have also become pressing challenges, particularly for many middle-income countries, he says. According to the WEF, the world faces the challenge of providing 600 million jobs in the next decade. At present some 200 million people worldwide are unemployed, including 75 million young people. Over 1.5 billion workers are in precarious employment in the world today, many of whom are women. Also, 40 million people are estimated to enter the labor force every year into economies that cannot accommodate them. About 910 million workers earn wages less than $2 per day and in the past three years, 55 million more people became working poor. Almost 60 percent of the worlds workers have no secure employment contract and 75 percent of the worlds people have no social protection. On top of this, 1.4 billion people in the developing world still lack access to electricity; over three billion people rely on biomass for heating and cooking; over two billion people have no adequate sanitation and close to one billion people do not have clean water. It is against this challenging social context, Waughray says, that scientists fear human societies are placing such pressures on our environmental systems that we may soon move beyond safe natural boundaries. According to Kourtnii Brown, program associate for The Asia Foundations environment programs in San Francisco, the policies and practices in support of attaining sustainable development have not kept pace with mounting pressures from economic growth worldwide or with increasing demands for finite natural resources in order to pursue such growth. The general policy focus for Asian economies in transition is still on meeting short-term welfare benefits as opposed to medium- to long-term sustainable development goals, she says. Developing states argue they, too, have a right to attain industrialized standards of living and that while binding, low-carbon and resource-efficient approaches are developed, they should not be required to forfeit their less sustainable poverty alleviation plans and objectives. As such, economic growth continues to be driven by the consumption of environmental capital as an infinite public good. Regardless of these affirmations, Japan, China, South Korea, and Malaysia (among the Asian nations that have passed aggressive low-carbon, renewable energy development plans) seem to agree that going green does not mean simply choosing between clean environments or accepting a less affluent standard of life, says Brown. Brown believes regulations can solve problems that markets ignore, and investing in things such as clean air and water have benefits that often outweigh the costs in terms of healthcare and lost worker productivity. They are beginning to take the first steps toward enabling a green economy future and seeking partnerships between the public and private sectors that have broad advantages for society, the environment, and the competitiveness of their economies, she says. karlwilson@chinadailyapac.com Share |

Tycoon with drive

Bangladeshs leading industrialist started his career selling reconditioned automobiles. The fashion warrior Wing of knowledge Dairy Queen

www.chinadailyapac.com/article/inconclusive-meeting

2/3