Why Every Earth and Environment Summit Ends With “Nothing”

The United Nations Global Environment Conference on “Green Economy and Sustainable Development” has concluded on 22nd June in Rio de Janeiro, with nobody at happy note.

More or less every such summits/conferences have encountered same fate as of now starting from Kyoto to Copenhagen to Durban to Rio n more..! 193 nations, who met at the conference, get failed to find a breakthrough on sustainable development. 

The recent three day summit commonly known as Rio+20 but with the so few targets, so few decisions and poor outcomes many activists and participants specifies it “Rio-20 or RioPluse20Minus40(Rio+20-40)”. 

"This is an outcome that makes nobody happy. My job was to make everyone equally unhappy," said Sha Zukang, Secretary-General of the conference.

Kumi Naidoo, executive director of Greenpeace International quoted it as “A failure of epic proportions”

3 days of empty rhetoric and greenwash from world leaders. #RioPlus20: a failure of epic proportions greenpeace.org/international/…
— Kumi Naidoo (@kuminaidoo) June 22, 2012

Mr. Naidoo called the final report the “longest suicide note in history.” "We saw anything of value in the early text getting removed one by one. What is left is the clear sense that the future we want is not one our leaders can actually deliver," said Greenpeace executive director Kumi Naidoo. "We now need to turn the anger people around the world are feeling into creative, thoughtful and meaningful action." 

Rio+20 were organized this year after 2 decade. Was it for only to discuss how much harm and damage human beings have made in between or to just make everything feel good at papers? At least the so far tale was this only and in fact every like shows ends in same way. Why 20 years while matter is so serious? Why not every year or every 6 months to measure the effects, to remind or to force or to convince people, after all its matter of entire planet and the consequences are shared. Nobody alone can avoid or nobody alone can escape. 

I am not a great environmentalist who has great inner insights but I do have my own stake in this planet and I do want it in its most natural form Green and safe. So I have questions, to those who are involved in deciding the fate of the planet, on their seriousness, on their will power to implement the solutions.

 Just hours before the meeting opened Wednesday, they agreed on a proposal that makes virtually no progress beyond what was signed at the original 1992 Earth Summit, removing the kind of contentious proposals activists contend are required to avoid an environmental meltdown. 

"We've sunk so low in our expectations that reaffirming what we did 20 years ago is now considered a success," said Martin Khor, a member of the U.N. Committee on Development Policy. 

The final statement from Rio, “The Future We Want,” is 283 paragraphs of kumbaya that “affirm,” “recognize,” “underscore,” “urge” and “acknowledge” seemingly every green initiative and environmental problem from water crises and creeping deserts to climate change and overfishing. Women’s rights, indigenous peoples, children, mining, tourism, trade unions and the elderly also get shout-outs in the document. 

The word “reaffirm” is used 60 times. They reaffirm the need to achieve sustainable development (but not mandating how); reaffirm commitment to strengthening international cooperation (just not right now); and reaffirm the need to achieve economic stability (with no new funding for the poorest nations).

Download the official #Rioplus20 #Futurewewant outcome document, now in 6 different languages! uncsd2012.org/thefuturewewan…
— Rio+20 Conference (@UN_Rioplus20) June 22, 2012

On the positive  side of things, while the effort to make progress on multilateral talks among the entire 193-nation U.N. body were a disappointment, the big gathering produced numerous promises and advances made by individual countries, companies and other organizations. The U.S. agreed to partner with more than 400 companies, including Wal-Mart, Coca Cola and Unilever, to support their efforts to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains by 2020. Andrew Deutz, director of international government relations at the Nature Conservancy, pointed out that Indonesia, Australia and Colombia all made strong commitments to protecting oceans in their national waters, in part to ensure future food security.

Brazil, Denmark, France & South Africa Join in Commitment to #SustainabilityReporting: bit.ly/PF0FRe #rioplus20
— UNEP (@UNEP) June 22, 2012

"Everything has been kicked down the lane a few years, we'll have to wait to formalize sustainable development goals and make the transition to a green economy," said Muhammed Chowdhury, a lead negotiator of Group of 77.

"It's not a good scenario." I’d love to know your thoughts about Rio+20, and also about sustainability, green initiatives and the most pressing ecological issues. Are large-scale gatherings like Rio worth the time, the cost and the carbon footprint? 

 Is sustainable development even possible, given the current state of the world economy? Should developing countries be held to less stringent rules on greenhouse emissions, for example, than developed economies? 

Think globally, act locally — for everyday folks is this the best way forward? We appreciate your comments. 

Source: Associated Press(news and Image.)

• Share

For Further Reading »

Global Environment conference -2012. UNEP, Rio+20, Rio+Social, UNEP