UN Commission on Sustainable Development reflections

Sitting at the airport after the Commission on Sustainable Development IPM seemed a good time to reflect on Earth Summit 2012 reflections. The week saw Stakeholder Forum host a dinner on Tuesday the 24th of February 2009. It certainly gave food for thought for those attending. Around 17 governments had people attending all in their personal capacity
The dinner looked at if the Summit was a good idea or not and report of it will appear on the Stakeholder Forum Earth Summit 2012 web site in about a week’s time. What I found interesting is the realisation by many that we are going to be facing multi crisis in the coming years and the present set up isn’t working. A summit is one way of addressing it but it may not be the only one.
This week also saw the BBC start to initiate a debate on the Summit through Richard Black's blog under the title 'Slow road to green reform'.

In the final speech by the Swiss Government to the CSD IPM they said:

"Lastly, Madam Chair, I would like to briefly address the issue of a possible Rio+20 or Stockholm+40 conference. In the UN General Assembly resolution on the implementation of Agenda 21 agreed upon last December, member states were invited to express their views on the possibility of convening a high-level event on sustainable development. We very much welcome this opportunity because it will help my Government and others to advance our thinking on this important issue. At the same time, we would like to invite all of us and also the Bureau and the Secretariat to think about ways to make use of the upcoming CSD session in May to continue this discussion in an inclusive and transparent manner."

UN Commission on Sustainable Development

In an opening statement to the CSD17 Intersessional Preparatory Meeting, on the 23rd of February 2009, G77 Chair Sudanese Ambassador Abdalmahood Abdalhaleem Mohamed told the CSD:

“In 2012, the International community will reach the twenty-year mark of the Earth Summit held in 1992 and the ten-year anniversary of WSSD held in Johannesburg in 2002. It will be 40 years after the Stockholm Conference of 1972. The time will be opportune for the international community to thoroughly review and assess the progress achieved since these two momentous summits. Guided by the “Rio Spirit”, a Rio-plus-20 Summit should provide the necessary political impetus for the range and level of action required to bridge the implementation gap. In this context the G77 and China welcomes the offer of the Government of Brazil to host such a Summit in 2012."

Informally the discussion around the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development is if there is to be a Summit perhaps it needs to be seeking a more dynamic agenda. Stakeholder Forum workshop in San Sebastian in November 2008 suggested that might be around the agenda of Human, Economic and Environmental Security. Allowing to look at previous commitments through a new and more relavant lens.

UNEP Governing Council

The twenty fifth session of UNEP Governing Council finished on the 20th of February . One of the really interesting discussions around the 2012 agenda was initiated by the South African Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk in a speech at the plennary session on International Environmental Governance (IEG). He outlined a roadmap on IEG:
"The first milestone will be when we meet in a year from now, in February 2010. At that meeting we should ideally adopt a Ministerial Declaration on the principles and objectives (on IEG) that will guide our further work in the run-up to Rio plus 20."

Other Ministers in the plennary and the working groups supported the use of Rio+20 for bringing a final decision on International Environmental Governance. Stakeholder Forum in the Ministeral Round Tables outlined three outcomes they hoped for on IEG - these included support for the South African inititiative but expanded to include sustainable development governance. The second outcome Stakeholder Forum wanted to see was support for the setting up of an adhoc Ministerial Working Group to prepare for the next UNEP GC in 2010 while keeping an eye on the climate change negotiations in December at the UNFCCC. This is to ensure it has a positive impact on international environmental governance. The final issue raised was to ask the UN Secretary General to consider setting up a High Level Panel or Commission on the Global Green New Deal.

All delegates at the UNEP GC were given a copy of the Donostia Declaration which was the outcome from a workshop on Earth Summit 2012 in November. If you want to follow developmengts on 2012 this can be done at the Earth Summit 2012 web site.