Green Economy seen as on track

Negotiators have agreed on a text to be approved by world leaders meeting this week in Rio in a summit intended to put society on a more sustainable path.

Environment groups and charities working on poverty issues believe the agreement is far too weak. The Rio+20 gathering comes 20 years after the Earth Summit, also held in the Brazilian city. The text has yet to be signed off by heads of government and ministers, but it seems that no changes will be made. “We have reached the best possible equilibrium at this point; I think we have a very good outcome,” said Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota.

“We consider that the spirit of Rio has been kept alive after 20 years.”

However, the European Union was unhappy with the level of ambition in the text, in particular Denmark, which holds the EU presidency.

Environmental groups have already lamented the draft text's lack of commitments. Pictures courtesy: BBC News

But Danish Environment Minister Ida Auken told BBC News that she believed it would be signed off.

“The EU would have liked to see a much more concrete and ambitious outcome, so in that respect I'm not happy with it,” she said.

“However we managed to get the green economy on the agenda, and so I think we have a strong foundation for this vision that can drive civil society and the private sector to work in the same direction, to understand that environment and the social side must be integrated into the heart of the economy.”

For the US, lead negotiator Todd Stern described the deal as “a good step forward”, adding that he did not expect heads of state and government to re-open discussions.

“I believe this document is done,” he said pointing out that Brazil has “no plan or intention to let the document open up.”

Environment and development groups are dismayed by many aspects of the agreement.

More than 100 leaders are expected to attend the summit from Wednesday

In large part, it merely 'reaffirms' commitments nations have made previously.

Activists mounted a huge Twitter campaign on Monday in an attempt to persuade governments to commit to ending fossil fuel subsidies.

However the final text reaffirms previous commitments to phase them out if they are “harmful and inefficient”, without setting a date.

The text calls for 'urgent action' on unsustainable production and consumption, but it gives no detail or a timetable on how this can be achieved, and no clear direction as to how the world economy can be put on a greener path.

Developing countries might have agreed to go further if developed countries had offered tangible financial support, but it did not do so.

Several processes will be established leading from the summit. One will eventually establish sustainable development goals (SDGs), but there is nothing in the agreement on what they might promise.

The UK's environment minister, Caroline Spelman, praised the deal on SDGs as a “good outcome”.

“We have backed SDGs from the outset and helped drive them from a good idea to a new agreement that will elevate sustainability to the top of the agenda.”

The UN Environment Programme will be strengthened, but not fundamentally reshaped, as some governments, in particular the French and Kenyans, wanted.

Another process will eventually lead to new protection for the open oceans, including the establishment of marine protected areas in international waters, and stronger action to prevent illegal fishing.

Corporations will not be obliged to measure their environmental and social performance. They are merely invited to do so.

Overall, observers here, as well as some government delegates, felt the world community has missed an opportunity to change the world's development track.

“This damp squib of a draft negotiating text makes it clear the Rio talks lack the firepower needed to solve the global emergency we're facing,” said Friends of the Earth's director of policy and campaigns, Craig Bennett, in Rio.

“Developed countries have repeatedly failed to live safely within our planet's limits. Now they must wake up to the fact that until we fix our broken economic system we're just papering over the ever-widening cracks.”

More than 100 world leaders are expected in Rio from Wednesday to attend the summit.

They include presidents and prime ministers from the large emerging economies, including China, India, Indonesia and South Africa.

But US President Barack Obama will not be there, and neither will UK Prime Minister David Cameron or German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who are all sending ministers in their places.

Governments must seize the 'historic opportunity' of the Rio+20 summit to put the world on a new sustainable course, says a panel of Nobel laureates, ministers and scientists.

Society is “on the edge of a threshold of a future with unprecedented environmental risks”, they conclude.

Their declaration is being presented to government delegations here.

The Rio+20 meeting comes 20 years after the Earth Summit, and was called with the aim of putting humanity on a more sustainable pathway, alleviating poverty while preserving the environment. The panel's declaration made clear that as far as they were concerned, the challenge is immediate and significant.

“The combined effects of climate change, resource scarcity, loss of biodiversity and ecosystem resilience at a time of increased demand, poses a real threat to humanity's welfare,” they write.

“There is an unacceptable risk that human pressures on the planet, should they continue on a business as usual trajectory, will trigger abrupt and irreversible changes with catastrophic outcomes for human societies and life as we know it.”

An economic system that takes account of natural capital and promotes development that does not destroy or degrade natural resources.

The group of more than 30 signatories includes Nobel laureates such as Carlo Rubbia, Walter Kohn, Douglas Osheroff and Yuan Tseh Lee, as well as politicians including Brazil's Environment minister Izabella Teixeira and Finland's recently ex-President Tarja Halonen.

Gro Harlem Brundtland, the former Norwegian prime minister and World Health Organization chief who led the Brundtland Commission on sustainable development in 1987, was also on the panel.

Prof Will Steffen from the Australian National University, one of the leading scientists in the group, said he hoped the declaration would make the implications of ministers’ choices clear to them.

“There are intrinsic limits to the planet's capacity, and we must recognise that we're transgressing them - in fact, have transgressed some of them,” he told BBC News.

Tarja Halonen said the declaration could and should encourage leaders to raise their ambitions in Rio.

“What this says to negotiators is they need to push harder, they must be encouraged to do more,” she told BBC News.

“The most important thing we are telling them is the urgency.”

The host government's delegation chief Luiz Alberto Figueiredo Machado told reporters on Monday afternoon that he was 'absolutely convinced' negotiators would finish talks within hours, leaving little for the estimated 130 heads of state and government to do when they arrive on Wednesday.

But according to sources, the discussions - from which reporters are excluded - saw heated exchanges over a number of issues, including the green economy, fossil fuel subsidies and sustainable development goals (SDGs).

EU ministers complained that the hosts had pushed their version of the text through without real negotiation, and that the outcome was far too weak.

In a joint statement, EU Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik and Danish Environment Minister Ida Auken said the EU “remains committed, for as long as it takes, to achieving concrete and ambitious outcomes from the Rio+20 negotiations.

“We believe that in these final stages, our ministerial colleagues are best placed to reach a political agreement with the substance needed to bring the world towards a sustainable future.”

Courtesy: BBC News