News

2012 is set to be a big year for Brazil, which is saying something given that every one of the seven years the country was under the stewardship of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, there were seminal accomplishments achieved.

Nevertheless, next year sees Rio de Janeiro host the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, an event that takes place from May 28th to June 6th.

It’s not only important in that it is hosting the event known as Rio+20, but significant in that Brazil, which is one of the world’s largest democracies, is committed to making its ascension up the ranks of economic superiority as green as possible.

With this in mind, the increasingly influential country has developed and submitted a number of proposals about how it will look to foster and promote an inclusive green economy ahead of the arrival of delegates next year.

At a press conference held at the start of the month, Izabella Teixeira, the minister of environment, and her colleague Luiz Alberto Figueiredo Machado, under-secretary-general for Environment, Energy, Science and Technology for the Ministry of External Relations, explained that not only would this green mentality reduce the country’s carbon emission output, it would also help reduce poverty and promote multilateralism.

Politicians recognise that economic and social development is inherently important in bringing the South American country right bang up-to-date and thriving in a 21st century environment, but not at a cost to the planet. Sustainability is a key issue here.

The proposals, which were developed, discussed and debated during an extensive consultation process with government departments and important stakeholders, contain some radical ideas.

“The world has experienced major changes: increases in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have led to the acknowledgement that global warming is a critical phenomenon for the future of mankind and an issue to be considered in the formulation of public policies and development strategies,” the authors of the report state.

“While unplanned urban growth has produced adverse effects, the telecommunications revolution – primarily reflected in greater access to mobile telephones and the expansion of the Internet – has had profound positive effects on the social and political field.”

Some of their proposals include the implementation of a global socio-environmental plan protection program, which would “overcome” extreme poverty and ensure everyone lives in a hospitable environment; water governance, which promotes its sustainable use in a more integrated way within the UN; and improving international environmental governance.

The authors of the report are candid in what a unique opportunity the Rio+20 conference offers the world as a solution to some of the major global problems plaguing nations across the world.

Sustainable development, the authors argue, need to occur in three areas that have been “undergoing very serious crises” lately: economic, social and environmental.

Through decisions that ensure suitable treatment of sustainable development in national and local strategies, in objectives and in multilateral governance, with a significant level of understanding of inter-relations among the various sectors, the Rio+20 Conference can go beyond the universalisation of the Rio Principles and to consolidate Sustainable Development as a long-term response to address economic, social and environmental crises,” the report concludes.