Heads of state, diplomats, and civil society leaders will get together for the twentieth United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, also known as the Earth Summit, June 4-6th, 2012 in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
The first Earth Summit, took place in Rio de Janeiro June 1992. The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, Agenda 21, Convention on Biological Diversity, Forest Principles and the Framework Convention on Climate Change came out of the 1992 Earth Summit.
The 1992 Earth Summit was the second major UN environmental summit. One main theme of the event was that environmental protection and economic growth should not be separate, and that both could be achieved simultaneously. However, perhaps the most notable result of the conference was Agenda 21 — a comprehensive document and plan to implement sustainable practices internationally.
The objectives of the Rio +20 Summit are: to secure renewed political commitment to sustainable development; to assess progress towards internationally agreed goals on sustainable development, and to address new and emerging challenges. The Summit will also focus on two themes: a green economy in the context of poverty eradication and sustainable development; and an institutional framework for sustainable development.
Manitoba Wildlands will be providing selected and recommended links for news, reports, and analysis regarding the Rio +20 UN Earth Summit. Media releases and clips will be listed by: Pre Rio +20, During Rio +20, and after Rio +20:
- July 3, 2012, Rio+20: An Undesirable U-Turn, Common Dreams
- June 28, 2012, Rio+20 in the Rear View: Companies Call for Better Water Governance, WRI Insights
- June 27, 2012, Rio+20 in the Rear View: A Look at Rio de Janeiro's New Greenhouse Gas Reduction Program, WRI Insights
- June 26, 2012, Rio+20 in the Rear View: What’s the Road Ahead for Sustainable Transportation?, WRI Insights
- June 26, 2012, Forests fare poorly in outcomes of Rio+20, say CIFOR scientists, Forests News
- June 26, 2012, What We Know After Rio: Governments Have Given Up on the Planet, Common Dreams
- June 26, 2012, Wrapping Rio, International Rivers
- June 25, 2012, Climate Change: Waiting for a Catastrophic Wake-Up Call, Common Dreams
- June 25, 2012, Dear Rio+20: A Call for Inspired Leadership and Imaginative Action, Huffington Post
- June 23, 2012 International: Rio+20 - Indigenous People Unveil Own Solutions, Indigenous Peoples Issues and Resources
- June 22, 2012, Rio+20 Wraps Up with "More of a Whimper Than a Roar", World Resources Institute
- June 22, 2012, Rio+20 Text Offers Hope for Improving Governance, WRI Insights
- June 22, 2012 Remarks at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development Plenary, U.S. Department of State
- June 22, 2012, A message to world leaders at Rio+20
- June 22, 2012, No Social Justice Without Environmental Protection, ITUC CSI IGB
- June 22, 2012, 50,000 people on the march for concrete actions in Rio+20, ITUC CSI IGB
- June 19, 2012, Furious Greenpeace Moves to 'War Footing' at Rio+20, Common Dreams
- June 21, 2012, Premier Congratulates IISD, Manitoba Partners on Sustainia100 Recognition, Government of Manitoba
- June 21, 2012, Rio environment summit opens with sober mood, Aljazeera
- June 20, 2012, Elinor Ostrom's Parting Advice to Rio+20, YES! Magazine
- June 20, 2012, Cowards at Rio?: organizations decry 'pathetic' agreement, Mongabay.com
- June 20, 2012, Indigenous peoples insist on rights-based approaches and respect for traditional knowledge and practices in Rio+20 outcomes, Forest Peoples Programme
- June 20, 2012, Ban Ki-Moon: Rio+20 Efforts 'Have Not Lived Up To The Measure Of The Challenge', Huffington Post
- June 20, 2012, International: Adopting The Indigenous Peoples' International Declaration On Sustainable Development And Self-Determination, Indigenous Peoples Issues & Resources
- June 20, 2012, Update on #EndFossilFuelSubsidies Proposals at Rio+20, 350.org
- June 19, 2012, Rio+20 and economic perils in Europe: opportunity for linkage, Mongabay.com
- June 19, 2012, Scientists give world leaders 'Fs' on climate change, biodiversity, and desertification, Mongabay.com
- June 19, 2012, A Rio report card, Aljazeera
- June 19, 2012, Greenpeace comment on state of Rio+20 negotiations text for adoption, Greenpeace
- June 19, 2012, The Elephant in Rio: The Corporate-Driven "Green Economy", Common Dreams
- June 19, 2012, At the Crossroads Between the 'Green Economy' and Rights of Nature, Common Dreams
- June 19, 2012, 'Twitter Storm' Calls for End to $1 Trillion in Public Subsidies for Dirty Fossil Fuels, Common Dreams
- June 19, 2012, Furious Greenpeace Moves to 'War Footing' at Rio+20, Common Dreams
- June 19, 2012, The Earth Cannot Be Saved by Hope and Billionaires, Common Dreams
- June 19, 2012, Rio+20: anger and dismay at weakened draft agreement, The Guardian
- June 19, 2012, #EndingFossilFuelSubsidies in Pictures, Video & Tweets: Why Rio+20 Needs to Act, Huffington Post
- June 18, 2012, WWF: biggest villain at Rio+20 is Canada, Mongabay.com
- June 18, 2012, Activists hail success of Twitter storm against fossil fuel subsidies, The Guardian
- June 18, 2012, UN environment haggle runs into problems ahead of summit, France 24
- June 18, 2012, Address to the Nobel Laureates Event at the Sustainable Development Conference Rio+20, Huffington Post
- June 16, 2012, WWF: only Brazil can save Rio+20 summit, Mongabay.com
- June 14, 2012, Rio+20 Earth summit: scientists call for action on population, The Guardian
- June 13, 2012, Clinton to attend Rio+20 conference, Reuters
- June 13, 2012, Africa: Rio+20 Conference - 'World Cannot Grow At the Expense of Poor People', AllAfica
- June 12, 2012, International: Civil Society Groups Denounce Sustainable Energy For All Initiative Promoted At Rio +20 Earth Summit, Indigenous Peoples Issues & Resources
- June 11, 2012, Rio+20 solutions too Northern, say South Asian analysts, SciDev
- June 11, 2012 David Cameron criticised for skipping Rio+20 Earth summit, The Guardian
- June 8, 2012, Rio+20 Earth Summit: Leaked Draft Portends Another Failed Climate Summit, Common Dreams
- June 6, 2012, Rio Earth summit nears as scientists warn planet faces grave threats, The Washington Post
- June 5, 2012, World Environment Day: Why Rio+20 Matters, Huffington Post
- May 5, 2012 The Peoples' Summit will gather CSO to question and debate new paths for the planet, On Go
- Rio +20's So-Called "Green Economy" a Trojan Horse
- June 1, 2012 A Global Call: Eco Warriors, Arise!, Common Dreams
- June 1, 2012 Canada, Last Holdout, Drops Opposition to Water as Human Right, Common Dreams
- May 25, 2012 Brazil takes centre stage, Nature.com
- May 25, 2012 Feds to cut air pollution monitoring team, Canada.com
- May 1, 2012 Climate Change And Sustained Economic Growth Link Observed In New Study, The Huffington Post
- May 1, 2012 Federal environment auditor worries new budget bill restricts public input, Winnipeg Free Press
- May 30, 2012 Only radical thinking will solve environmental problems, The Globe and Mail
- May 29, 2012 Enbridge ad campaign intensifies pipeline battle, The Globe and Mail
- Opinion: Canada's mass firing of ocean scientists brings 'silent summer', Environmental Health News
- May 11, 2012 United Nations Rio+20 Summit: Concerns Raised Over Lack Of 'Transformational Change', Huffington Post
- April 24, 2012 A Plea for Rio+20: Don't Commodify Nature, Yes! Magazine
- March 19, 2012 Preparations for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development 19-27 March 2012, IISD
- March 23, 2012 Reflections on the Right to Water as We Move Towards Rio +20, Common Dreams
- March 6, 2012 Reflecting on Rio: looking back to 1992, The Guardian
- March 1, 2012 Rio+20: Reflecting on the past, understanding the present and gazing to the future, The Guardian
- December 18, 2011, Eye on Earth Summit Launches Biodiversity Initiative, IISD
- December 15, 2011, "Making it Happen" Features DRR Needs for Rio +20, IISD
- November 18, 2011, High-level Forum on Ecosystem Management Sends Input to Rio +20, IISD
- November 2011, UNEP Launches Article Series on Rio +20 Themes, IISD
- November 2011, UNESCO Releases Roadmap Towards a Sustainable World, IISD
- October 24, 2011, Rio Conventions Pavilion Showcases Actions for Land, Biodiversity and Climate, IISD
- November 2, 2011, UN Agencies Release Blueprint for Ocean and Coastal Sustainability Ahead of UNCSD, IISD
- November 2, 2011, UNEP Releases Report on Changing Environment - From Rio to Rio +20, IISD
- November 3, 2011 CEB's Common Statement on Rio +20 Notes Climate Change Impacts, IISD
- United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (2012 - Rio +2)
- June 4, 2011 One year to Rio +20 - is there hope?, Greenpeace
- May 11, 2011 Cooperation for a Green Economy, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)
- United Nations on Trade and Development, The Road to Rio +20
- Road to Rio, Plus 20 website
- Earth Day Network, The Road to Rio
- We Canada, Earth Summit 2012
- Earth Summit 2012 - Institutional Framework for SD
- UN Conference, United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (1992)
Hundreds of civil society organizations converged in Brazil to unveil the "Peoples' Sustainability Manifesto" the final day of the United Nations Rio+20 Summit June 22, 2012. The Manifesto evolved through a consultative process for fourteen Peoples' Sustainability Treaties.
The Manifesto reads: "We, the signatories to this Manifesto, refuse to sit idly by in the face of another failure of governments to provide hope for a sustainable future for all. ... We pledge ourselves to: equity ... localizing our systems of economies ... [and] a Global Citizens Movement."
"It's fitting that we're launching the process in Rio de Janeiro, twenty years on from the 1992 Earth Summit. Governments at Rio are talking about institutional frameworks for sustainable development and the green economy. But these efforts will not succeed unless we also pay attention to the health of the world's dominant political system – democracy," stated Co-Chair of the Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development (FDSD) John Lotherington, whose organization lead the manifesto development process.
A public consultation process, soliciting feedback to finalize the Peoples' Sustainability Manifesto, will run until the end of November 2012. FDSD is also looking for champions of the manifesto, which is scheduled to officially launch in early 2013.
Sign the Peoples Sustainability Manifesto
View Peoples' Sustainability Treaties on OccupyRio+20 page
View June 22, 2012 People's Sustainability Manifesto press release
View June 8, 2012 International Institute for Environment and Development coverage
View June 8, 2012 Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development press release
Source: Peoples' Sustainability Manifesto, Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development
The United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) sounded the alarm in its fifth Global Environment Outlook (GEO-5) report, published two weeks before the Rio+20 summit in Brazil June 20-22.
The GEO-5 report, three years in the making and the United Nations' main health-check of the planet, urges governments to create more ambitious targets or toughen existing ones.
"If current trends continue, if current patterns of production and consumption of natural resources prevail and cannot be reversed and 'decoupled', then governments will preside over unprecedented levels of damage and degradation," said United Nations (UN) Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.
GEO-5 assessed progress and gaps in meeting 90 internationally agreed goals from UN conventions. Significant progress was found for just 4 goals, with some progress made for 40 goals, and 32 goals with very little or no progress.
Some of the successful goals included: preventing ozone depletion, and providing access to clean water supplies. But GEO-5 detected little or no progress addressing climate change, depleting fish stocks and expanding desertification.
GEO-5 provides analysis on over 90 promising policies and 116 case studies to help countries speed up meeting internationally agreed upon goals.
UNEP called on governments to focus their policies on the key drivers behind climate change, notably: population growth, urbanisation, fossil fuel-based energy consumption, and globalisation.
Current models suggest greenhouse gas emissions could double over the next 50 years, leading to rise in global temperature of 3 degrees Celsius or more by the end of the century. That level of planetary warming would have catastrophic effects, with most of the impacts from climate change felt in developing countries in Africa and Asia, the GEO-5 report said.
View June 6, 2012 United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) report (PDF)
View June 6, 2012 Huffington Post coverage
View June 6, 2012 CBC News coverage
View United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development Rio+20 page
Source: United Nations, Huffington Post, CBC
Next week, 20 years after the 1992 UN Rio Earth Summit, representatives of the world's governments will gather again in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to frame a global response to the Earth's environmental crisis. Debates leading up to Rio+20 are focusing attention on a foundational choice between two divergent paths to the human future.
The Money Path
For money path advocates, money is the defining measure of value. Profit and growth in financial assets are the bottom line measures by which they assess the performance of both the firm and the economy. They value natural wealth by the price it will fetch in the market and look to global financial markets as the preferred mechanism to organize our human relationships with one another and nature.
The Life Path
For life path advocates, Earth is our living Mother, sacred and beyond price. Her health and vitality are essential to our well-being and are therefore a priority bottom line measure of economic performance. In return for Earth's gifts, we have a sacred obligation to future generations to protect and restore to full health the wondrous generative systems by which she replenishes her air, water, fertile soils, fish, forests, and grasslands, and maintains the stable climate on which our health and well-being depend.
View entire June 15, 2012 Yes! Magazine article
In 1992, the Rio Earth Summit brought world leaders together around the frame of "sustainable development" and launched global agreements on biodiversity, climate change and desertification. Two decades later, the environmental and economic crises they had hoped to stave off–global warming, record extinction rates, depleted fisheries, vast economic inequality–are upon us. And so political leaders and grassroots activists are gathering again in Rio in late June to take up the planet's most pressing issues. Here are 10 things you should know about the Summit:
View entire June 14, 2012 Yes! Magazine article
Over 10,000 participants contributed ideas and recommendations in the Rio+20 Dialogues online, which have now been condensed into 10 proposals in 10 different thematic areas. In June, the recommendations will be discussed in the Sustainable Development Dialogues and 30 will be chosen to be conveyed directly to world leaders and decision makers at the Rio+20 Conference.
View more information on Earth Summit 2012 website
By Felix Dodds and Michael Strauss with Maurice F. Strong Routledge Publishing, June 2012
With Rio+20 just three weeks away, new book Only One Earth looks back over what has been achieved in the past forty years since the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, and ahead to what critically needs to happen at Rio+20 and beyond. Written by Stakeholder Forum's Executive Director, Felix Dodds, and Earthmedia's Michael Strauss, with Maurice F. Strong, Former Secretary-General, "Earth Summit" [1992]; UN Conference on Human Environment [1972] and Executive Director, UNEP [1972-76].
View Earth Summit 2012 coverage
In June 2012, movements and leaders will meet in Rio for Rio+20, two decades after the Earth Summit was organised in 1992 to address urgent ecological challenges such as species extinction, biodiversity erosion and climate change. The Earth Summit gave us two very significant international environmental laws: the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations framework Convention on Climate Change. It also gave us the Rio principles, including the Precautionary Principle and the Polluter Pays Principle.
In both the Climate Treaty and the Biodiversity convention, trade and commerce is replacing conservation and the commons. Rights of Corporations is replacing the Rights of Nature and People.
And this change in values, from conserving and sharing to exploiting and privatising, is justified in the name of economic progress and economic growth. Yet the economic paradigm for which the Earth and Society are being pillaged and destroyed, is itself in deep crisis. Look at the farmers suicides and hunger and malnutrition crisis in India. Look at the protests in Greece, Spain or the Occupy movement of the 99% in the US.
View entire June 1, 2012 The Asian Age article
With a month to go before the United Nations Conference on Sustainability in Rio de Janeiro, nearly two dozen NGOs are calling on President Barack Obama to confirm his attendance at the event, known as Rio+20.
President Obama's "presence at this Summit would signal its critical importance to all Americans, demonstrate our country's deep concern over urgent global issues that will inevitably affect our security and well-being, and highlight our nation's determination to be a contender in the race to a low-carbon green economy," according to an open letter (pdf) made public on Monday.
"U.S. leadership at Rio is essential," Don Kraus, CEO of Citizens for Global Solutions, a Washington-based national network, told IPS.
Recently U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon noted that President Obama's personal participation at the summit would be "crucial". "We count on the United States," the secretary-general said at an event here in Washington late last month.
View entire May 22, 2012 Inter Press Service article
The twenty past winners of the Blue Planet Prize, often called the Nobel Prize for the environment, presented a report, Environmental and Development Challenges: The Imperative to Act, at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) meeting in Nairobi, Kenya February 20, 2012.
"The paper by the Blue Planet laureates will challenge governments and society as a whole to act ... development challenges can be addressed, emphasizing solutions... and behaviour changes required to grow green economies, generate jobs and lift people out of poverty without pushing the world through planetary boundaries," said Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director.
The stark assessment of the current global outlook commissioned by UNEP was prepared by agroup, that includes: Sir Bob Watson, United Kingdom chief scientific adviser on environmental issues; US climate scientist James Hansen; Prof José Goldemberg, Brazil's secretary of environment during the 1992 Rio Earth Summit; and Stanford University Prof Paul Ehrlich.. The report will feed into texts for the Rio +20 Earth Summit conference June 2012.
The report warns against over-reliance on markets and urges politicians to listen and learn from how poor communities all over the world see the problems of energy, water, food and livelihoods as interdependent and integrated as part of a living ecosystem.
"The rapidly deteriorating biophysical situation is more than bad enough, but it is barely recognized by a global society infected by the irrational belief that physical economies can grow forever ... the perpetual growth myth ...promotes the impossible idea that indiscriminate economic growth is the cure for all the world's problems, while it is actually (as currently practiced) the disease that is at the root cause of our unsustainable global practices," states the report.
The Blue Planet Laureates' paper urges governments to: replace GDP as a measure of wealth, eliminate subsidies in sectors with high environmental and social costs, tackle over-consumption, and address population pressure by empowering women, improving education and making contraception accessible to all.
View February 17, 2012 Blue Planet Laureate report
View February 21, 2012 Inter Press Service article
View February 20, 2012 Guardian article
View February 20, 2012 Common Dreams article
View February 20, 2012 Business Green article
View February 11, 2012 UNEP news article
Source: Guardian, UNEP
IISD Reporting Services manages two resources for policy makers as they prepare for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio +20).
UNCSD-L is a community announcement list for policy makers and practitioners involved in international sustainable development, particularly those focused on the preparations for the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, also referred to as Rio +20). This free knowledge-sharing tool is managed and moderated by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) Reporting Services.
The launch of UNCSD-L comes as the UN, governments, academics, NGOs, businesses and the media undertake preparations for UNCSD. The UNCSD will convene 20 years after the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, also known as the Rio Earth Summit), and will seek to assess implementation of previous commitments while addressing new and emerging challenges to sustainable development.
View IISD website
View IISD Reporting Services website
Join UNCSD-L Mailing List
View Sustainable Development Policy & Practice website
The 'Date With History' contest is an opportunity for young people around the globe to inspire the leaders of the world to act boldly and with urgency on key issues impacting the future of our planet. Entrants can upload a video speech below, and the top videos voted by the online public will be shared at the upcoming Rio Earth Summit in June.
A diverse jury of prominent celebrities, environmental activists and thought leaders will select one winner who will travel to Rio de Janeiro to participate in the summit and to share their vision!
View Date With History website
The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) (a.k.a. Earth Summit) is taking place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June 2012. The event has been dubbed Rio +20 as it is again being hosted in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, twenty years after the 1992 Earth Summit.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT) and the Canadian Environmental Network (RCEN) have selected key regional environmental NGOs to host consultation events with civil society groups across the country. Each consultation will be centered on a series of think pieces developed by SF and UNEP's Green Economy Report.The results of the consultations will inform the Canadian UNCSD delegation as well as the UN Environment Programme and the UNCSD Secretariat as to RIO + 20 priorities.
Civil Society recommendations will also be compiled into a draft consultation document to be presented at a final workshop scheduled in Ottawa November 2011. Consultations have already taken place in Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary. The remaining consultations will be held in September, 2011 in the following cities: Montreal, Winnipeg, Halifax, Ottawa, Saskatoon, Québec City, Fredericton, St. John's.
Sources: UN, RCEN
The Journal of International Affairs has released a special edition entitled "Rio+20 and the Global Environment: Reflections on Theory and Practice." The special edition of Journal brings together a series of scholarly articles that brings together various theories of international relations approaches on environmental politics and sustainability.
View May 2012 "Special Issue: Rio+20 and the global environment: reflections on theory and practice" International Affairs, Volume 88, Issue 3, Pages iii-xi, 457-682
In cooperation with the Rio+20 Secretariat, the UN System and the Global Compact Local Network Brazil, the UN Global Compact will host the Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum: "Innovation & Collaboration for the Future We Want" from 15-18 June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro.
The Forum aims to strengthen the business contribution to sustainable development globally - seeking to bring greater scale to responsible business practices, to advance and diffuse sustainable innovation, and to stimulate broader collaboration between companies, governments, civil society and the UN.
View Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum: Innovation & Collaboration for the Future We Want webpage
International Institute for Sustainable Development Reporting Service
The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and Kriton Arsenis, Member of the European Parliament (MEP), held an information session at the European Parliament to raise awareness on ocean-related issues in the lead up to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio +20). Participants heard expert presentations on the main threats to the oceans, including: ocean acidification; overfishing and illegal fishing; and biodiversity loss. Other presentations stressed the importance of science, monitoring and assessment for the sustainable management of the oceans.
Key actions identified include the further development of existing tools for actions, such as Regional Seas for the protection of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction, and facilitating cooperation and synergies through initiatives such as the Joint Programming Initiative for Healthy and Productive Seas and Oceans (JPI Oceans).
View entire March 14, 2012 IISD Reporting Services article
It makes sense that environmentalists are placing a lot of stock in the Rio +20 conference ...the first Rio Earth Summit was groundbreaking; it was a coming out party for modern environmental consciousness, and laid down the foundations for cornerstones of global ecological protection like the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It was the first large global recognition of the need for international climate action, and the need to preserve important resources like clean air and water.... its time for us to break up with Rio and the United Nations. It is only when we realize that we do not need Rio or the UN to solve climate change that international progress may become possible. Our faith should not be in multilateralism, and international conferences, but rather, in each other, and in the power we can build together. Once we realize that, we will start building something so powerful that the impossible will become possible, and by Rio +30 we wont simply have blind faith, we will have the power.
View entire February 22, 2012 Huffington Post article
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