Which future we want: An Assessment of the Rio+20
by Oswaldo Lucon
The article talks about the long expectation to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development – the so-called Rio+20. Preparatory negotiations had a sense of a real dialogue and willingness to find common ground. Few key deliverables would make a difference: defining sustainable development goals (SDGs) as a central feature of a post-2015 development framework, exploring green economy policy options to advance sustainable development and eradicate poverty, and to make decisions on key elements of the international institutions needed to support such governance. There was a vast array of topics to be addressed under such umbrella: food security and sustainable agriculture, energy, oceans, gender equality and women’s empowerment, and education.
The necessary means of implementing action were on the table, including initiatives to strengthen financing, technology transfer and capacity building. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged as a priority for a new model that offers growth and social inclusion, also more respectful of the planet’s finite resources.
Stakeholders were encouraged to make and implement voluntary commitments at Rio+20 in order to get to what the main document stated in its title: The future we want.
Read the article (.pdf)Dr. Oswaldo Lucon
Dr. Oswaldo Lucon, Future Young Leaders’ Board of Directors
Dr. Oswaldo Lucon, on the MOSAICQUE’s Board of Director writes a critique about the recent Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development. He writes this article in assistance with two brilliant students Rodrigo Messias & Ana Maria Baccarin of International Relations working as trainee at the Foreign Affairs Advisory of the Secretariat for the Environment of the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Dr. Lucon is a senior adviser on Energy and Climate Change Policies to the São Paulo State Government, Brazil. He authored the São Paulo Climate Change Policy, the first law in the developing world to have a mandatory, economy-wide and absolute CO2 emission reduction target. Co-author of the book Energy, Environment and Development, he has several published international papers. Dr. Lucon is since 1994 a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, having coordinated the 2006 Emission Inventory Guidelines (Energy), the Special Report on Renewable Energy (Sustainable Development) and presently coordinating the Fifth Assessment Report (Buildings).