WORLD leaders gathered in Brazil for the Rio+20 summit, culminated three days of meaningful deliberations committing more than US$513 billion for sustainable development, including in the areas of energy, transport, green economy, disaster reduction, desertification, water, forests and agriculture. The consortium making the pledge included governments, the private sector, civil society and other groups to achieve a sustainable future, of which US $323B will be devoted to the Secretary-General’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative, which seeks to achieve universal access to sustainable energy by 2030.
A wide range of actions have also been pledged, including the planting of 100 million trees, empowering 5,000 women entrepreneurs in green economy businesses in Africa, and recycling 800,000 tons of polyvinyl chloride (commonly known as PVC) – one of the most widely used plastics – per year.
UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon expressed his gratitude for the encouragement by the world leaders for their strong political commitments to agree to a solid outcome document which he said, “puts all of us towards a greater sustainable path.”
Secretary-General of the Conference, Sha Zukang deemed the conference a great success and was quoted in a summit release published on the United Nations (UN) website saying that, “it (the summit) had a huge participation, but participation without success means nothing, but we succeeded in concluding negotiations and agreeing to establish not only sustainable development goals but also a high-level forum to monitor the implementation of all commitments.”
An outcome document calls for a wide range of actions including the commencement of the process for the establishment of sustainable development goals; detailing how the green economy can be used as a tool to achieve sustainable development, promotion of corporate sustainability reporting measures; taking steps to go beyond gross domestic product to assess the well-being of a country, development of a strategy for sustainable development financing and the adoption of 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; among other points.
Meanwhile, President Donald Ramotar on Thursday, addressing the conference urged world leaders not to end such an important forum, complacent with mere inspirational messages to address world challenges, but rather truly seek and agree to specific, practical actions that are applicable to today’s realities.
The Head of State also called for boldness of vision and an agreement on specific actions that match the scale of the challenges faced by countries and, reiterated the call for countries to face up to the need for funding which the international community has already acknowledged as the fair thing to do, recognising that financing is a main factor in achieving joint objectives.
Previous commitments saw US$30 billion in fast start funding for the period 2010 to 2012 growing to US$100 billion per annum by 2020.
President Donald Ramotar also said that leaders need to be clear about the special conditions that exist across countries, especially those that apply to small highly indebted middle income countries.
Guyana’s delegation which included former President Bharrat Jagdeo, Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, Robert Persaud, Advisor to the President on Sustainable Development, Science and Technology, Navin Chandarpal and Head of the Office of Climate Change, Shyam Nokta, pressed the case for reconciliation of two global forces that have traditionally been seen as incompatible- protecting the environment and economic development, as a critical challenge that must be overcome by the global community.
The Summit attracted more than 40,000 people including Heads of State and government and representatives from non-governmental organisations and the private sector.