GDF SUEZ
Significant progress on sustainable development issues is essential to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. Global and substantial shift of developed, emerging and developing economies towards a more responsible, fair, inclusive and low-carbon economy is essential. Indeed, these are the pillars of the “green” growth concept. A major issue is the establishment of global governance which allows discuss-ing, and dealing with, this global concern. The implementation of sustainable development, as a human development goal, requires moving from a major item on the political and business agenda into large-scale concrete, workable and affordable solutions accessible to all. Rio+20 deliverables should be concrete and focused on efficient and credible commitments and so-lutions, supported by alliances of stakeholders, including governments, business and civil society:
1. energy efficiency, cleaner energy mix, circular economy are topics on which long-term com-mitments from all stakeholders can build a major milestone for future work on achieving sus-tainability;
2. research and innovation need to be reinforced on topics such as smart grids / networks, CCS, renewable energy, fuel cells, power storage…
3. concrete solutions to provide universal access to essential services (energy, water, mobil-ity, …) and to reduce poverty must be embedded in workable sustainable development road-maps. Social and economic development must be a key objective on the path towards responsi-ble growth;
4. globally, our economies require more visibility, transparency and a supportive international framework for businesses and communities already engaged on the path towards workable sustainability;
5. effective, transparent and reliable market mechanisms that are capable of valuing and fi-nancing different dimensions (ecological and social externalities) of the green economy must be established to support sustainable business activities and to foster resource efficiency (in-cluding financial resources). Rio+20 should engage stakeholders towards achieving global sustainability goals and accelerate the pace of the reorientation of our economies on the road to a greener and more responsible development model, with differentiated but shared responsibilities of mature, emerging and least developed coun-tries.
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