Time for a Different Approach
One has to ask if the goal of a Summit like this should be focused on one text. Besides Rio+, the results have been pretty much the same at Durban, Cancun and Copenhagen.
It could be time for a different approach, which seems to be happening concurrently anyway.
"A document doesn't save the planet; what saves the planet is real action," says Jake Schmidt, director of international climate policy for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). "Rio can't be about the text. It's got to be about the commitments and the rallying cry that's coming from the public.," he told Bloomberg.
Costa Rica President Laura Chinchilla points to monitoring the growth of individual pledges as more important than the summit's official agreement, and countries that are willing to do more should push forward in smaller alliances on issues like reducing deforestation.
NRDC counts separate commitments worth $513 billion on its new website, Cloud of Commitments, which tracks them.
The NY Times says, "The outcome reflects big power shifts around the world. These include a new assertiveness by developing nations in international forums and the growing capacity of grass-roots organizations and corporations to mold effective environmental action without the blessing of governments."
Indeed, at the side sessions, hundreds of agreements and projects were announced .. which don't require government involvement.
Andre Correa do Lago, chief negotiator for Brazil, told Reuters: "This summit recognizes more than the others that not one size fits all." Many government leaders from developing countries used their time at the podium to talk about the panoply of needs they are struggling with, especially compared with the developed world. While Brazil, China and other big emerging nations reiterated their need to catch up with rich countries, others like Bolivia, Iran and Cuba unleashed traditional rants against capitalism and conventional definitions of growth."
Many developing countries continued pushing for a global fund that helps them pursue sustainable development, but the prospect of a $30 billion fund was dropped even before the Summit began. There was also a proposal from France to tax financial transactions to build the fund, but that also failed to gain traction.
Announcements/Commitments at Rio+20
Governments made 692 individual commitments and companies made 517 commitments at last count. 57% relate to energy, followed by water (18%), cities (10%) and oceans (5%). Pledges include at least 243 programs related to sustainability education and projects at universities across the world.
"These huge numbers give a sense of the scale and growth of investment going into sustainable development," says UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. "They are part of a growing global movement for change. Our job now is to create a critical mass, an irresistible momentum."
Over 50 governments are launching energy strategies, under his "Sustainable Energy For All" initiative, whose goal is to double the share of global renewable energy and the rate of energy efficiency improvement by 2030, while ensuring universal access to renewable energy. Annual investment will have to rise from the current level of $1.3 trillion to $1.8 trillion, says a HSBC analyst in a research note.
While government negotiators "haggle over a dwindling pool of traditional aid, the private sector is scaling up trillions of investment dollars a year for clean and accessible energy," says HSBC. "This Initiative is an example of a new way of working for the UN, using its convening power to identify critical bottlenecks to renewables, efficiency and universal access, and then designing focused packages of policy incentives, public finance and private capital."
The following are examples of commitments from governments and companies.
Brazil will invest $4.3 billion to achieve universal energy access by 2014 and announced the creation of Rio+ Centre, the World Centre for Sustainable Development. Its purpose is to facilitate research, knowledge exchange and promote international debate about sustainable development among all levels of government, the UN, NGOs, universities, think-tanks and the private sector.
Japan will provide $3 billion in aid to developing countries in the next three years to help them transition to a green economy,
The United States pledged $2 billion in grants, loans and loan guarantees, as well as public-private energy technology to support "Sustainable Energy For All," including $20 million in grants to business owners in Africa for clean energy projects.. The partnership, which includes the US State Department, the Overseas Private Investment Corp (OPIC), and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, will leverage hundreds of millions in private financing to "make clean energy and energy security cornerstones of our foreign policy," said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
"This will help unleash the large potential for renewable energy that exists in Africa, says Jake Schmidt of NRDC. "It expands OPIC investment into a continent in desperate need of renewable energy to help address energy poverty and the growing energy needs in key African countries."
