The United Nations General Assembly agreed to a new Earth Summit in December. The Summit will be in 2012 and will be hosted by Brazil. The themes are the Green Economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, the institutional framework for sustainable development, emerging issues and a review of present commitments. This site will keep you abreast of all the developments and latest news.
Click here to read the resolution
EARTH SUMMIT 2012: 'Sustainable Development - The Peace of the Future'
Since the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesberg in 2002, there has been a dramatic increase in threats to peace and security caused by social, environmental and economic crises.
In light of the new and immense challenges faced by the sustainable development agenda, Stakeholder Forum was active from the beginning in supporting the call for a World Summit in 2012.
With this website and a range of other activities, we set out to kick-start the discussions on an Earth Summit in 2012, twenty years on from the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. You can view all the documents which we produced including the Donositia Declaration and material used for for the Informal Government meeting organised by Stakeholder Forum in October of 2009
NEWS
- The New Economics Foundation have produced a report linked to the Green Economy
"Growth isn't possible" Why developed countries need a new economic direction has been produced by nef. You can read the complete report here.
You can also view the Impossible Hamster and join the official hamster club by clicking on the image below.
- UNEP release draft Ministerial Declaration in support of Rio+20
The final Declaration will be agreed at UNEP governing council meeting which will be held in Bali in February 2010. To read the draft click here
Maurice Strong on Rio+ 20
Maurice Strong former Secretary General of the Rio and Stockholm Earth Summits has been interviewed by Mirian Vilela of the Earth Charter on the proposed Rio+20 Summit, click on the picture below to see a recording of the interview
Jan Pronk thoughts on Rio+20
Listen to Jan Pronk, currently Professor of Theory and Practice of International Development at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague and former Special UN envoy to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, talk about Rio+20
Commonwealth Civil Society supports Rio+20
Port of Spain Civil Society Statement presented to Commonwealth Heads of State on the 25th of November support “calls for the Green Economy to be the major focus of a Rio+20 Earth Summit in 2012.”
France and Brazil underlines view for Rio+20
A Common Position of the Government of the Federative Republic of Brazil and the Government of the French Republic on Climate Change was released from the Elysee Palace – on Saturday, November 14th 2009.
In a far reaching statement, Brazil and France concur in the need for the establishment of an international organization devoted to the environment and sustainable development, which would give coherence to the efforts of the international community in these areas. They are convinced that the impetus should be given in Copenhagen in December so that the organization could be established at the Rio+20 Conference in Rio de Janeiro in 2012. Click here to read the statement.
G-77 Draft resolution on Rio +20
On the 4th of November Sudan on behalf of the G-77 produced a draft resolution on an Earth Summit in 2012, to read the resolution click here
Informal meeting organised by Stakeholder Forum in New York on Earth Summit 2012
This workshop will look at the issues that will need to be addressed if the UN General Assembly agrees to a Summit. Stakeholder Forum has produced three papers on organisational issues, focus of the the summit and the roadmap to the summit. You can read these papers below
Paper 1: "Focusing the Summit Agenda"
Paper 2: "Organizational Options for the 2012 Sustainable Development Summit"
Paper 3: "Intergovernmental Roadmap to 2012"
The workshop is sponsored by the Governments of France and Switzerland and Skanska
You can read the outcome document on the workshop here
Broad government support for a proposed summit
A range of countries have welcomed the opportunity to discuss the possibility of a summit. Dr Asad Khan Minister of Pakistan to the UN concerning Rio+20 he said:
"Clearly the challenge of sustainable development has become far too acute and big for any country to tackle. The UN undoubtedly, has a central role to play in this regard, particularly in advancing the global sustainable development to meet new and emerging challenges in an increasingly globalized world.
The need for an integrated and coordinated response to arrest, reduce and rverse the negative trends is, therefore, vital. In this regard we look forward to an early decision on convening a world summit on sustainable development in 2012 in Rio, Brazil to carry out a comprehensive review of the implementation of Sustainable Development Agenda since Stockholm and to delineate a roadmap for future actions to effectively deal with new and emerging sustainable development challenges"
Norway recognised the opportunity that a new Earh Summit could give. In particular when referring to the reform of Environmental Governance (one of the proposed themes of the summit) a representive stated "A third proposal concerns reform of the International Environmental Governance system (IEG). This is not a new topic. The challenges faced by today’s system are well known. They include fragmentation, overlap, lack of coherence, multiple and costly adminstrative entities, combined with insufficient funding for environment and sustainable development action. The need for reform is obvious, but our ability to act has so far been inadequate. The outcome of the current Belgrade process initiated by the UNEP Governing Council may give an indication of whether there is sufficient political will and enough momentum to take the process further. If so, a high-level event may be the right forum"
India roundly endorsed the idea of a new summit and in a statement to UN Committee II said "In this regard we also support the holding of a "Rio+20" event in Brazil in 2012 to comprehensively reveiw progress made in implementing the sustainable developmentagenda."
- "TOWARDS A WORLD SUMMIT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 2012" a conference by The European Economic and Social Committee and Stakeholder Forum
On the 1st and 2nd of October in Brussels the Economic and Social Committee and Stakeholder Forum presented the first major conference to be held in Europe on Rio+20. A number of key speakers in the field of sustainable development and environmental governance gave presentations. To view the presentations click here.
Read the Swedish Presidency response to the conference where they welcome the focus on a Green Economy and reform of International Environmental Governance here
European Union wants 'Green Economy' as part of Earth Summit 2012
The EU has welcomed the Brazilian Government offer to host a United Nations high-level event on sustainable development in Rio de Janeiro in 2012. Both parties shared the view that the 'Green Economy' should be one of its main focus. The EU and Brazil agreed that the event could renew political commitment towards this key issue of sustainable development and define appropriate new initiatives. They agreed that the event could also offer an opportunity to advance issues that have taken up prominent positions in the international agenda.
Civil Society in the USA call for an Earth Summit
Civil Society Organisations across the USA representing more than a million US citizens have written an open letter to President Obama calling for the USA to endorse the current proposal before the United Nations to hold an Earth Summit in 2012 in Brazil.
To read the letter click here
France endorses Earth Summit
In a meeting between President Sarkozy and President Lula on the 6th and 7th of September France announced their support:
"France fully supports the desire of Brazil to organize in 2012 a new Earth Summit, 20 years after the first Summit had been held in Rio de Janeiro. This new peak may be an ideal opportunity to make decisive and necessary progress for international governance of the environment."
Read French Governments Statement here
- United States stakeholders meet to discuss Rio+20.
Two meetings where held in Washignton DC in July which brought together a range of stakeholders to discuss views and opinions on the issues to be addressed at a possible Earth Summit in 2012. One of the meetings was hosted on the 6th of July by Justice and Sustainability and on the 7th of July the meeting was hosted by National Resource Defense Council.
You can download presentations on the need for a Rio +20 Earth Summit by Jacob Scheer of the NRDC (here), and Felix Dodds of the Stakeholder Forum (here). These presentations can be used as a basis for discussions in relation to a Rio+20 summit.
- The Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the College of William and Mary organised an event Global Environmental Governance Forum: Reflecting on the past, moving into the future
At the event the majority of people speaking on the first day did so assuming that a Rio+20 event will happen and it seems that at the Environmental Ministers meeting in Belgrade on Saturday and Sunday on IEG also put Rio+20 into their roadmap.
Dr Toepfer floated his idea of reconvening of the Brundtland Commission to deal with the range of issues centering around Green Economy.
Ambassador Lars Goren Engfelt presented findings from his new book "From Stockholm to Johannesburg and beyond". This book is a must for anyone interested in sustainable development governance. It is published by the Government of Sweden.
- The Brazilian government submit comments on the possibility of holding a high level event on sustainable development in 2012. To read this document and what a possible summit could address click here
On the 26th of May the Brazilian submitted a document on the possibility of convening a high level event on sustainable development in preparation of the report of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, in response to an invitation by the Secretariat.
- In response to the response to an invitation by the Secretariat to submit comments on the possibility of convening a high level event in 2012 the Czech Republic submited its view on behalf of the European Union. To read this document click here
The Czech Republic stated that sustainable development was a fundamental priority of the European Union, and appreciated the opportunity to discuss the possibility of a high level event. The letter stated that the focus of such an event could be on key issues of the environment and development agenda, which have a multiple effect on a larger number of other issues. The European Union welcomes the opportunity to engage with the wider UN community to discuss a high level event and looks forward to elaboration of the Brazilian proposal
Trade Unions endorse Rio+20
Read their CSD article from Outreach Issues!
Tony Manwaring of Tomorrows Company calls for a Rio+20 here
Read Emilio D'Alessio President of Local Agenda21 Italian Assocation on Rio+20 here
Speech Delivered at CSD-17
Felix Dodds spoke on the potential summit at a CSD side event organised by the Brazilian government
Stakeholder Forum launches Earth Summit Blog
Stakeholder Forum has launched a blog to discuss issues and events as we prepare for Earth Summit 2012.
