More Negotiations on Rio+20 Document Kick off at UN Today

United Nations, May 29 (Prensa Latina) Delegates from the 193 UN member countries start next Tuesday an additional week of negotiations on the text of the document to be approved by the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20).

The new round was called early this month, when another series of talks held at the UN headquarters failed to advance among prevailing disagreement, less than a month before the Rio Summit.

That round was expected to conclude at least 90 percent of the draft document, but a large number of controversial issues prompted participants to add an additional space on May 29-June 2.

According to diplomatic sources, the so-called green economy and all what that notion includes constituted one of the aspects meeting more resistance from developing countries, as most of them considered that the imposition of that concept aimed to turn the struggle for sustainable development and against climate change into merchandise without altering whatsoever the current world´s production and consumption patterns.

“It is just a platform to place market rules at the center of the alleged solutions to the issues of environment, nature and sustainable development,” said a Latin American delegate.

Last week, Under-Secretary for Environment, Energy and Science at the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Luis Alberto Figueiredo Machado, said at the UN that the current crises are the result of development models that were unable to solve them and also generated and nurture new ones.

Speaking in a debate called by the General Assembly on “The Road to Rio=20 and Beyond”, Figueiredo warned that the crisis is global and multiple: environmental (climate and biodiversity), economical (economics and finances) and social (employment and inequality).

Another aspect expected to be at the center of negotiations on the Rio+20 text is linked to the proposal to establish some twenty “objectives of sustainable development” to be fulfilled by all countries in a certain time.

These targets include climate, clean energy, biodiversity, water, seas and oceans, forests, agriculture, urban centers and other issues, but mostly under a mercantilist perspective.

According to the UN, more than 135 heads of State, vice presidents and premiers already confirmed their participation in Rio+20, as well as hundreds of non governmental organizations, business people, legislators, mayors, academicians and other groups and sectors.

The conference will be held at the convention, exhibit center Riocentro, and will be preceded by a preparatory meeting on June 13-15 and a so-called dialogue of the civil society on sustainable development on June 16-18.

 

Article originally appeared in Prensa Latina.