All is not lost yet

On June 22, the last day of the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development, which took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, I was sitting in one of the meeting rooms in Riocentro, when I noticed a middle-aged lady sitting next to me. She was crying. I asked if there was something wrong and if she needed any help. She said: “Yes, they killed our future, the future of my children”. She was referring to the Rio+20 outcome; the final document is The Future We Want which was adopted by the summit. This document contains hardly any new commitment by governments. It consists of 253 paragraphs of statements, affirmations and appeals that aim to lay the groundwork for a green economy and Sustainable Development Goals that will replace the UN’s Millennium Development Goals from 2015.

While this outcome document contains many reasonable statements of consensus, it is neither transformational nor visionary. It contains no clear measurable goals/targets, no timelines and no clear indication of how the transition to green economy will be funded. In short, the delegates missed a once-in-a-generation chance to take to a sustainable path to achieve a real victory for humanity.

This proves that the world leaders are not capable of getting any agreement on world environmental issues or take practical steps to implement a new paradigm of economy. They are defending national interests rather than working together on a common global agenda and they are locked in the old ways of doing things. These ways have proved to be unsustainable and inequitable and have resulted in recent years in economic crises and have driven people into the streets to protest from the Arab World to Wall Street. This also means that top-down solving of the world’s problems is no longer an option.

Arising from the failure of political leadership, the anger and frustration of that lady and many like her must be turned into action. In fact, our hope is in people. People everywhere have to take responsibility and mobilise themselves. People can make sure that the world we pass on to our children and grandchildren is healthy, equitable, prosperous and sustainable.

Happily, the lack of political leadership was countered by the very innovative ideas, enthusiasm and determination to get the future the earth needs from major groups and civil society — from youth, women, trade unions, indigenous people, the science community and others.

It is worth mentioning that while government delegations are calling the text a significant achievement, up to now more than 2,000 NGOs, institutions and individuals have signed a petition calling it “the Future we do not want” — citing failures to remove fossil fuel subsidies, failure to protect oceans among others.

To be fair, the picture is not all that dark. Little has been achieved and the outcome document provides a firm foundation for social, economic and environmental well-being. It is now our responsibility to build on it.

Rio+20 has affirmed fundamental principles and put us on the first step in a new direction. The outcome document calls for a wide range of actions. These include:

— Beginning the process to establish Sustainable Development Goals. They will be universal and replace the UN’s Millennium Development Goals from 2015. Details remain to be determined in future talks, a process likely to be long. A lot of challenges lie ahead, but it is one of the little victories of Rio+20.

— Detailing how the green economy can be used as a tool to achieve sustainable development; that is a step forward. A year ago, many governments were suspicious of the concept. Now they are exploring green economy as one tool for sustainable development.

— An agreement to improve the “Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development.” This will involve restructuring some of the internal bureaucracy in the UN’s Economic and Social Council; phasing out the commission of sustainable development; strengthening the UN Environment Programme, establishing new procedures for budgeting and a decision to establish a “universal intergovernmental high-level political forum” that could undertake a number of convening activities.

— Taking steps to go beyond gross domestic product (beyond GDP or green GDP) to assess the well-being of a country;

— Promoting corporate sustainability reporting measures;

— Developing a strategy for sustainable development financing;

— Adopting a framework for tackling sustainable consumption and production. It also focuses on improving gender equity; recognising the importance of voluntary commitments on sustainable development and stressing the need to engage civil society and incorporate science into policy.

In all cases, I believe, only after some years we can really judge if the outcome was a success or failure. If the current momentum is to be used positively and we (people) manage to build upon what we have in our hands and put green economy and governance on the right paths, it definitely will be a success. Otherwise, it might turn into a total failure if the correct procedures, actions and policies are not adopted.

It may be true that humanity lost an opportunity, but we definitely still have not lost hope.

— Dr Mohamed Abdel Raouf is an independent environmental researcher.