Rio+20: A call to responsibility, a call to action
31/05/2012
- Opinión
Statement of the Ubuntu Forum on the occasion of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development Rio de Janeiro, 20-22 June 2012
We are all going through a period of great confusion and uncertainty.
On the one hand, part of the world is dramatically affected by the consequences of the state of total submission of governments to the financial markets. These markets, supposedly anonymous, are not subject to any kind of control, due to the deregulating policies of the last decades. They have even overthrown democratically elected governments and substituted them by “technocratic” ones.
On the other hand, the speculative nature of a great part of these markets is harshly affecting the price of commodities, including food, thus pushing more millions of people to hunger and malnutrition. This fact, in addition to the chronic failure in the fulfillment of international agreements related to development cooperation, is aggravated even more by the current financial and economic crisis.
In parallel, the world is immersed in another crisis that is threatening its own survival. The challenges of climate change and environmental degradation, together with unsustainable production and consumption models, are growing alarmingly, something that the present structures of global governance are not able to face, as shown by the repeated failures of the last COP meetings (1).
In this framework, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, also known as Rio+20, will take place in Rio de Janeiro from June 20 to 22, twenty years after the celebration of the “Earth Summit” in the very same city. This will be a key moment in the international agenda, to which everybody –including citizens, of course– must pay special attention.
There are several topics in the agenda resulting from intense negotiations that are still underway. In this respect, the World Forum of Civil Society Networks – UBUNTU wishes to underline the following, while demanding:
a) Regarding the two main themes, green economy and institutional framework:
• The green economy concept must refer to a model of sustainable development that includes a holistic approach, with deep social roots and a strong commitment to environment. We shall reject the promotion of any other model that, based on subterfuge, conceals an option for an increased commodification of nature.
• The need for reforming the institutional framework is obvious and more urgent than ever. We shall move beyond the organizational details of the new framework, which are also important, but the priority is to ensure that the resulting structure has the resources, independence and powers to guarantee the implementation and fulfillment of the environmental agreements, including the capacity to impose sanctions. This must go hand in hand with a process of promoting a system of democratic multilateralism. This is the only possible option for those who truly believe in the transition towards a model of real, global democratic governance that is both participatory and fair.
b) Regarding the other issues of the Summit:
• One of these is the responsibility of making progress in all aspects related to the concept of climate justice, based on the principle of “common but differentiated responsibility”. In this sense, the issue of financing is essential, highlighting once more, the need to move forward with respect to innovative mechanisms of financing for development, particularly, the proposal of a Financial Transaction Tax.
• In the framework of a comprehensive proposal regarding the concept of sustainable human development, it is imperative to establish a legal framework that prevents speculation affecting food prices.
• Moreover, the debate regarding the new ways of measuring development and sustainability must help us, in line with the Human Development Index, to overcome the current model based on the GDP. This model shuns basic criteria such as equity, sustainability or respect for Human Rights. In this sense, the proposal of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) may be a positive one, but only if it goes in the abovementioned direction, and if it is complementary to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), with which in any case it must never compete.
• It is also extremely important that the Summit renews and re-launches agreements as essential as the Agenda 21, which includes topics of utmost significance, such as the commitments regarding greenhouse gases, or the conventions on climate change, biological diversity or desertification.
Therefore, the undersigned make a call to promote the mobilization of all the involved actors, and especially citizens and civil society –at all levels: local, regional and global– in order to ensure that this new “Earth Summit” measures up to the serious occasion we are going through.
The world cannot afford another fiasco in Rio. It is time for responsibility. And, above all, it is time for action.
1 Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Federico Mayor
Mário Soares
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Nobel Peace Prize
Richard R. Ernst, Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Noam Chomsky, Author & Prof. Em. MIT
Susan George, Transnational Institute / ATTAC
José Antonio Ocampo, Columbia University, Former UN Under-Secretary-General
Héctor Gurgulinno de Souza, Former UN Under-Secretary-General and Rector of the United Nations University
Nair Goulart, Vice-chair ITUC /Presidente Força Sindical - Bahia
Ignacio Ramonet, Director, Le Monde Diplomatique en Español
Colin Archer, International Peace Bureau (IPB)
Herman Spanjaard, Chair International Council, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW)
Ricardo Díez Hochleitner, Honoray Chair, Club of Rome
Aminata Traoré, Activist / African Social Forum
William Pace, Convenor, Coalition for the International Criminal Court
Ashok Kosla, Chair, Development Alternatives
Jean Ziegler, University of Geneva, former UN Special Rapporteur on Right to Food
Alexander Likhotal, President, Green Cross International (GCI)
Mario Lubetkin, Inter Press Service (IPS)
Ann Pettifor, Director, Policy Research on Macroeconomics (PRIME)
Roberto Savio, Othernews
Chico Whitaker, Right Livelihood Award; Justice and Peace - Brazil
Saskia Sassen, Columbia University
Aldo Caliari, Center of Concern
Pedro Santana, EURALAT
Fatma Alloo, DAWN Africa
Aniol Esteban, New Economics Foundation
Andrés Serbin, Presidente, Coordinadora Regiona de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales (CRIES)
Kevin Dance, Passionists International
Germaine Price, Company of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul
Gustavo Marín, Director, Foro para una nueva Gobernanza Mundial
Celita Echer, International Council for Adult Education (ICAE)
Rómulo Torres, LATINDADD
Lawrence Kwark, Pax Romana -ICMICA
Jose Mari Zeberio, World Rural Forum
Jesús Lizcano, President, Transparency International - Spain
Jason Nardin, Social Watch - Italia
Emmanuel Poilane, France Libertés
David Hillman, Stamp Out Poverty
Jorge Carpio, Executive Director, FOCO - Argentina
Antoni Giró, Rector, UPC – Technical University of Catalonia
Antonio Papisca, Professor, University of Padua
Hall Gardner, American University of Paris
Yash Tandon, Former Executive Director of the South Centre, and author of "Ending Aid Dependence"
Arcadi Oliveres, Justícia i Pau - Barcelona
Alfons Banda, Fundació per la Pau
Juan Tugores, Professor of economics & former rector, University of Barcelona
Oscar Ugarteche, UNAM-Universidad Autónoma de México
José Antonio Alonso, Professor, Complutense University Madrid & Columbia University
Ignasi Carreras, Director, Institute for Social Innovation, ESADE
Fèlix Martí, Honorary President, Centre UNESCO de Catalunya
Jorge Nieto Montesinos, Instituto Internacional para la Cultura Democrática
Josep Ferrer, Professor, UPC – Technical University of Catalonia
Santiago Ramentol, Professor, UAB – Autonomous University of Barcelona
Carles Duarte, Poet
Ferran Requejo, Professor,UPF - Pompeu Fabra University
María Novo, Professor, UNED - National Distance Education University, Spain
Miquel Àngel Essomba, Director, Centre UNESCO de Catalunya
Cristina Ribas, Presidenta Associació Comunicació Científica
Miquel de Paladella, President, 1x1 Microcrèdit
Manuel Manonelles, Director, UBUNTU Forum
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