Earth Summit

Rio +20 Earth Summit - 2012 United Nations Conference
on Environment and Development

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.

Links & Media

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• Post Rio +20
• During Rio +20
• Pre Rio +20

• Cloud of Commitments
• Climate Change Task Force
• Earth Summit 2012 Organization
• Earth Summit Backgrounder (PDF)
• Karioca Caravana: The Road to Rio+20
• Keeping Track of Our Changing Climate, UNEP
• OneWorld Group
• Rio +20 Portal
• Rio +20 & RCEN Civil Society Consultations Webpage
• Rio +20 Projects on TckTckTck
• Rio Conventions Pavilion
• Stakeholder Forum
• Tck Tck Tck: Date With History
• USC Canada News
• United Nations Global Compact
• Vote for the Future You Want

• Chez Rémi: My Planet
• Climate Action Network International
• Climate Action Network International: Fossil of the Day
• Earth Charter at Rio+20
• United Nations Environment Programme: Kyle Empringham
• World Development Movement

• Green Cross: Climate Change Task Force Event
• Fair Ideas: Focus - Sharing pro-poor sustainable energy solutions
• GSI Event - Breaking Down the Political Barriers to Fossil-Fuel Subsidy Reform
• Learning and Skills Strategies for a Green and Climate Resilient Transition
• Rio +20 Events on Tck Tck Tck
• Rio+20 and Women's Lives: a Cross-generational Dialogue
• The IPCC at RIO+20 (PDF)

• A Date with History: 17 yr old Brittany Trilford addresses world leaders at the UN Earth Summit, TckTckTck
• Bianca Jagger: 'The Coalition Has Been Incredibly Disappointing on Climate Change'
• Brazil's broken Rio summit promise, Aljazeera
• Climate change and sustainable development: IPCC Chairperson Dr Rajendra Pachauri
• Earth Day Network President, Kathleen Rogers discusses the Rio+20 conference
• ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability launches GreenClimateCities initiative
• In Rio, 5 big companies to launch initiative to boost demand for REDD+ carbon credits, Mongabay.com
• Jonathan Foley - The Other Inconvenient Truth
• Our scarcest resource is time
• Opening the People's Plenary at Rio+20
• Rio Earth Summit Watch
• The Future I Want: Brittany Trilford's winning entry for Date with History
• The Oceans and Rio +20
• The Rio speech heard round the world, Mongabay.com
• UN Webcast
• Up close and personal with Richard Branson at Rio, GreenBiz.com
• Where the Rain Falls Video page
• World Mayors Council backs CCTF Statement on action against climate change

• Energy Day at Rio +20, IISD
• November 1992 Report The Rio Earth Summit: Summary of The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development
• May 2012 Report Whose Green Economy?
• Rio+20: A Water Guide for Young Water Experts
• World Rivers Review - June 2012: Focus on 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)

Comment

Rio+20: A Call for Inspired Leadership and Imaginative Action Top By Michael Trainer, published on June 25, 2012 by Huffington Post "Our governments are locked into the chains of the status quo" so said Jeffrey Sachs this week at the Rio+20 summit. "What we need are pioneers who don't ask for permission." As the Rio+20 summit came to a close there was a mixture of sentiment in the air, none of which is excitement. What we really need is a return to old virtues and bold declarative leadership. We have abandoned ourselves to markets and to politicians, and I am struck by a lack of vision. My keys to the future we want: More transparency and accountability, and a more inclusive process where the voices in the room are not simply those with access badges. More Social Enterprise -- Businesses that measure environmental and social impact along with economic benefits. Political will -- This is where the movement and the establishment can meet, if citizens can demonstrate they are informed, engaged, and most importantly mobilized their representatives take note. Imagination, Courage, and Character -- we need more visionaries. Cooperation -- Quality teams with different skill sets and accountabilities committed to measurable outcomes. Networks -- Growth is expeditious, but so is connectivity, if we can harness that potential in our communications and collaborations our growth can be both expeditious and sustainable. Commitment -- Bold declarative visions inspire people to rise up in themselves, and what we really need as issues of global complexity grow in magnitude are people committed to raise and adopt with shifting boundaries, economic and political realities, and harness the possibility our expanding population for their creative potential and opportunity. Global Citizens -- informed, inspired, and taking action. View entire June 25, 2012 Huffington Post article

Peoples' Sustainability Manifesto

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.

UN Sounds Alarm with Environment Outlook

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.

Rio+20: A Defining Choice

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

10 Things You Should Know About the Rio+20 Earth Summit

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

Rio+20 Dialogues: vote for the Future You Want

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

Only One Earth: The Long Road via Rio to
Sustainable Development

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

Ahead of the Rio+20 Earth Summit,
a call for a paradigm shift

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

Green Groups Urge Obama to Attend Rio+20

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

Blue Planet Prize-Winners Advise Rio +20

"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.

Rio +20 Information Tools

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.

Rio+20 Contest: Win a Date With History

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!

Canada Rio +20 Civil Society Consultations

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.

Special Rio+20 Edition of the Journal of International Affairs

Ri0+20 Forum on Corporate Sustainabilitty

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.

UNESCO IOC Highlights Ocean Issues Ahead of Rio+20

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).

Rio+20: A Break-Up Destination for Idealistic Enviros

View entire February 22, 2012 Huffington Post article