Fri, Jun 22, 2012 -
Summit Paves Way for Sustainable Development
Goals; New Indicator of Wealth 'Beyond GDP'
and Focused Government Spending
Upgrading UNEP Signals Greater Authority
for World's Environment Ministers
Rio de Janeiro, 22 June 2012 - The Rio+
20 Summit ended today with a range of outcomes
which, if embraced over the coming months
and years, offer the opportunity to catalyze
pathways towards a more sustainable 21st
century.
Heads of State and more than 190 nations
gave the green light to a Green Economy
in the context of sustainable development
and poverty eradication.
Further Resources
The outcome document in all languagesPress
Release in PortugueseGreen Economy Report:
Pathways to Sustainable Development and
Poverty EradicationSustainable Water Management
is Achieving Economic, Social and Environmental
Benefits, say CountriesRio+20: Opportunity
to Fast Track Transition to Green Economy,
Lift Millions Out of PovertyWorld Remains
on Unsustainable Track Despite Hundreds
of Internationally Agreed Goals and ObjectivesUNEP
and EU Sign Partnership for Sustainable
Cities and RegionsUN and Insurers Launch
Global Insurance Principles to Propel Sustainable
DevelopmentUNEP Launches Global Initiative
for Resource Efficient CitiesBrazil, Denmark,
France & South Africa Join in Commitment
to Sustainability ReportingNew Countries
to Start Phase-Out of Inefficient Lighting,
with Major Economic and Climate BenefitsRio+20
Pavilion to Get New Eco-Friendly Lease of
Life in Local CommunityNew Report Calls
for Integrated Approach to Human Rights
and Environmental ProtectionUN and Partners
Launch Global Partnership on Marine Litter
at Rio+20A New Balance Sheet for Nations:
Launch of Sustainability Index that Looks
Beyond GDPUNEP Green Economy InitiativeUNEP's
activities at UNCSD 2012 (RIO+20)UN Opens
Major Congress to Promote Role of Law in
Achieving Sustainable DevelopmentGoing Green:
Pioneering Private Sector Already Embracing
Sustainable FutureReport Highlights Raft
of Inspiring Examples of Transformative
Actions by Cities & Local GovernmentsGlobal
Renewable Energy Investment Powers to Record
$257 BillionNations agreed that such a transition
could be 'an important tool' when supported
by policies that encourage decent employment,
social welfare and inclusion and the maintenance
of the Earth's ecosystems from forests to
freshwaters.
The decision supports
nations wishing to forge ahead with a green
economy transition while providing developing
economies with the opportunity for access
to international support in terms of finance
and capacity building.
Meanwhile the Summit
also gave the go-ahead towards a set of
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to
bring all nations-rich and poor- into cooperative
target setting across a range of challenges
from water and land up to food waste around
the globe.
The SDGs are expected
to compliment the Millennium Development
Goals after 2015: they reflect the reality
that a transition to an inclusive green
economy and the realization of a sustainable
century needs to also include the footprints
of developed nations as well as as developing
ones as they aim to eradicate poverty and
transit towards a sustainable path.
Other potentially positive
outcomes include a ten year framework on
sustainable consumption and production with
a group of companies announcing at Rio+20
initiatives to already move forward including
in the area of sustainable government procurement
of goods and services.
A decision to work towards
a new global indicator of wealth that goes
beyond the narrowness of GDP; encouragement
for governments to push forward on requiring
companies to report their environmental,
social and governance footprints.
After some four decades
of discussion and calls for the environment
programme of the UN to be strengthened,
governments agreed on an upgrading of the
UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
Meanwhile the World
Congress on Justice, Governance, and Law
for Environmental Sustainability, hosted
by the Brazilian Supreme Court and UNEP
in partnership with a number of international
organizations, committed to use international
and national laws to advance sustainability,
human and environmental rights and the implementation
of environmental treaties.
The Congress, involving
some 200 delegates including chief justices,
senior judges, attorney-generals, chief
prosecutors, auditor-generals and senior
auditors, called on governments to back
an Institutional Framework for the Advancement
of Justice, Governance and Law for Environmental
Sustainability in the 21st Century backed
by UNEP.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary
General and UN Environment Programme (UNEP)
Executive Director, said: "World leaders
and governments have today agreed that a
transition to a Green Economy-backed by
strong social provisions-offers a key pathway
towards a sustainable 21st century".
"Several other
important agreements were also forged that
can assist in enabling that transition ranging
from assessing the potential of a new indicator
of wealth and human progress beyond the
narrowness of GDP to increasing the level
of accountability and transparency of companies
in respect to reporting their environmental,
social and governance footprints,"
he added.
"The outcome of
Rio+20 will disappoint and frustrate many
given the science, the day to day reality
of often simply surviving as individuals
and as families, the analysis of where development
is currently heading for seven billion people
and the inordinate opportunity for a different
trajectory. However if nations, companies,
cities and communities can move forward
on the positive elements of the Summit's
outcome it may assist in one day realizing
the Future We Want," said Mr Steiner.
"Meanwhile after
almost four decades of discussion , governments
have decided to upgrade UNEP including in
key areas such as universal membership and
improved financial resources-this is welcome
as one important way for improving the authority,
the influence and the impact of the world's
minister responsible for the environment
in terms of moving development onto a more
sustainable track," said Mr Steiner.
Beyond GDP
Rio+20 addressed growing concern that Gross
Domestic Product may have out lived its
usefulness in a world where natural resource
scarcity, pollution and social exclusion
are also becoming drivers of whether a nation's
wealth is truly going up or running down.
The Summit's outcome
document requests the UN Statistical Commission
to work with other UN bodies including UNEP
and other organizations to identify new
approaches for measuring progress.
The Commission's work
will draw on a range of assessments and
pilot projects ongoing across the globe.
Inclusive Wealth, which
is based on the World Bank's Adjusted Net
Saving indicator, is developing a more inclusive
indicator of national wealth, covering not
only produced capital, human capital, and
natural capital, but also critical ecosystems
-and through the UN, a new Systems of Environmental
and Economic Accounts has been proposed
for use by member states.
UNEP and the UN University's
International Human Development Programme
at Rio+20 presented findings from an Inclusive
Wealth Index (IWI) looking at several countries
including Brazil.
Other pathways towards
a new indicator include:-
The EU effort to go
"Beyond GDP" - launched in November
2007 its aims to come up with a broader
set of macro-level indexes other than GDP
and provide information on how economic
growth affects its own foundation (stock
of all assets)
Several countries including
Brazil, Colombia, Germany, India and the
United Kingdom have or are now carrying
out national assessments of the value of
their 'natural assets' drawing on those
done globally by The Economics of Ecosystems
and Biodiversity hosted by UNEP
Consumption and Production
Another potentially
significant step forward was the adoption
of a 10 year framework on sustainable consumption
and production covering several sectors
ranging from tourism to government procurement.
During Rio+20 over 30
governments and institutions including Brazil,
Denmark, Switzerland and UNEP announced
a new global International Sustainable Public
Procurement Initiative (SPPI) aimed at scaling-up
the level of public spending flowing into
goods and services that maximize environmental
and social benefits.
Studies indicate that
sustainable public procurement, which represents
between 15 and 25 per cent of GDP, offers
a tremendous opportunity towards green innovation
and sustainability.
Examples from around
the world show that sustainable public procurement
has the potential to transform markets,
boost the competitiveness of eco industries,
save money, conserve natural resources and
foster job creation.
In India, for example,
government procurement is worth about US
$300 billion and is expected to grow by
more than 10 per cent annually in the coming
years
Across the OECD group
of countries, public procurement represents
close to 20 per cent of GDP (over US $4,700
billion annually), while in developing countries
the proportion can be slightly higher
Japan's Green Purchasing
Policy, has contributed to the growth of
the country's eco-industries, estimated
to be worth about &euro430 billion in
2010
Europe could save up
to 64 per cent of energy - or 38 TWh of
electricity - by replacing street lights
with smarter lighting solutions
In Brazil, the Foundation
for Education Development succeeded in saving
8,800 m3 of water, 1,1000 tonnes of waste
and 250 kg of organohalogen compounds, providing
the equivalent of one month economic activity
to 454 waste pickers, through its decision
to replace regular notebooks with ones made
of recycled paper in 2010
Sustainability Reporting
An estimated 25 per
cent of the 20,000 companies tracked by
Bloomberg are reporting their environmental,
social and governance footprints-but 75
per cent are not.
Such in-depth data offers
the opportunity for pension funds to invest
in companies with a long term perspective
of profits through sustainability reporting
while assisting governments in measuring
the contribution of multi-nationals towards
national sustainability goals and progress
beyond GDP.
On 20 June several countries
including Brazil, Denmark, France and South
Africa-several of whom already have stock
exchanges requiring better reporting- announced
they would move forward on the issue with
support from UNEP and the Global Reporting
Initiative.
UNEP Upgrade
Rio+20 also agreed to
strengthen and 'upgrade' the UNEP in order
to strengthen the environmental pillar of
sustainable development.
The decisions include
addressing the limited membership of UNEP
which currently stands at 58 member states
into a body with universal membership of
its Governing Council while increasing UNEP's
financial resources by an increased allocation
from the UN's regular budget.
The Rio+20 outcome also
calls on the next General Assembly of the
UN to strengthen UNEP's ability to assist
member states at the regional and national
level and to build on its science-policy
interface including through UNEP's flagship
Global Environment Outlook process.
As part of this intensifying
global relationship between scientists and
governments, the International Council for
Science led by Nobel Prize winner Yuan-Tseh
Lee with UNEP and the UN Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization also launched
the 'Future Earth' initiative.
Ways to advance the
participation of civil society including
cities is also envisaged as part of the
strengthening and upgrading process.
Governments, civil society
and the private sector have been preparing
for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development
(Rio+20) for around two years.
Throughout the preparations
and during Rio+20 the UN including UNEP
have been providing assessments, studies
and policy pathways aimed at supporting
member states on the science and the options
for transformational change.
UNEP's work on the Green
Economy, in partnership with a wide range
of UN and other bodies, has led to a range
of supportive reports including:-
