It’s only about five months until the important environmental conference ‘Rio +20’ takes place in the Brazilian city of the same name. The international gathering will be held under the auspices of the United Nations and is intended as a follow up to the famous UNCED (United Nations Conference on Environment and Development) in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro (hence the name ‘Rio plus twenty’).
It will also be the tenth anniversary of the subsequent WSSD (the World Summit in 2002 on Sustainable Development) in South Africa. This latest Rio conference, in June this year, is of course again being hosted and organised by the Brazilian government who earlier this month issued a controversial draft agenda for the event.
Already concerns are being expressed in some quarters about a perceived lack of ‘hard focus’. This is regarding the specifics proposed by the Brazilians, made public on the last day of January.
The overall themes of the conference ( and this is the crux of the unease) are supposed to be based on developing a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication and also the institutional frameworks necessary in the first place for that sustainable development.
The main foreign criticisms of the twenty-page draft agenda seem to centre on one main area. That is the perception by some that several of the proposals to benefit international social and economic progress would actually detract from the environmental objectives. Others disagree of course.
The two sides of this question will obviously have considerable thrashing-out to do before and after the Conference, if indeed it is to end up being useful and/or successful.
Whatever the outcome, tackling climatic and environmental issues clearly has great relevance worldwide but also for those who care about Brazil’s long-term welfare in particular. The economy will be affected by decisions made and that will have a clear impact on everything from international investment to domestic housing policy.
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