Global Sustainability Governance after the 'Rio+20' Earth Summit (original) (raw)
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Curtain down and nothing settled: global sustainability governance after the 'Rio+20' Earth Summit
The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, held in June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, was probably the largest event in a long series of megasummits on environmental protection and sustainable development. Roughly 44 000 participants descended on Rio de Janeiro to take part in ten days of preparatory committee meetings, informal consultations, side events, and the actual conference. Yet despite this unprecedented high attendance by participants from governments and civil society, the outcome of the conference is less than many had hoped for. In this paper I review the outcomes of the 2012 Rio conference in detail, with a special focus on its contributions towards the reform of the institutional framework for sustainable development. Following this review, I discuss the way ahead and options for structural reform to restrengthen earth system governance.
Governing sustainability: Rio+20 and the road beyond
Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 2013
The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, more widely known as 'Rio+20', was a significant global political event, but it left many important questions relating to the future of sustainability governance unanswered. This paper introduces a theme issue on "Governing sustainability: Rio+20 and the road beyond". It is organized around three themes which are addressed at greater detail in the different papers: (i) the current status of governance for sustainability in the aftermath of Rio+20; (ii) whether or not sustainable development still has political and institutional relevance; and (iii) institutional and political opportunities and obstacles for governing sustainability in the future. The paper argues that both sustainability governance and the sustainable development concept are under growing pressure amid a perceived failure to deliver change, but identifies three opportunities to advance sustainability: (i) by reframing the way in which problems of unsustainability are described and approached; (ii) via the formulation of effective sustainable development goals; and (iii) by identifying novel ways to open up the sustainable development debate to more actors and interests.
Two issues will take centre stage at the forthcoming UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20): the prospects for a global “green economy” in the context of poverty alleviation and sustainable development, and the United Nations’ institutional Framework for sustainable development. In the run-up to the conference, public attention is heavily focused on the issue of a green economy and the formulation of global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). But the development of the UN’s institutional sustainability architecture must not be treated as a secondary issue. It is indeed a precondition if the visionary green economy ideas are to become tangible for the day-to-day business of multilateral development cooperation and if any SDGs that may emerge are to be achieved. At the very least Rio+20 should therefore provide the framework in which the heads of state and government admit to the world public once and for all that the alleged conflict between environment and development is a construct that must be overcome to everyone’s benefit. Global development that is sustainable in the true meaning of the word will remain impossible unless scarce natural resources are used responsibly and unless climate change is effectively mitigated. Effective environment policy and forward-looking resource management, on the other hand, will help, especially under conditions of poverty, to improve the well-being and development prospects of the people affected. The prospective realignment of the UN environment and development institutions thus becomes a litmus test of the United Nation’s future ability to take action in the realm of sustainable development and a gauge of how seriously the international community takes the goal of transforming the global economy. A highranking Council for Sustainable Development and an environment agency that carries more political weight may be instrumental in this, so long as they are not restricted to symbolic policies. This calls for unequivocal political support from the heads of state and government, international agreement on the development of more efficient negotiating and decision-making processes, more effective instruments for implementation and supervision and reliable financial resources on an adequate scale. Any new or reformed agency must fit into the overall UN institutional structure and take account of reforms already being undertaken to achieve “system-wide coherence”. Only then can the United Nations be put in a position to provide the enduring support expected of it for a global transformation to sustainable development.
Rio+20 and the Future of the UN Sustainability Architecture – What Can we Expect?
2010
Two issues will take centre stage at the forthcoming UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20): the prospects for a global “green economy” in the context of poverty alleviation and sustainable development, and the United Nations’ institutional framework for sustainable development. In the run-up to the conference, public attention is heavily focused on the issue of a green economy and the formulation of global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). But the development of the UN’s institutional sustainability architecture must not be treated as a secondary issue. It is indeed a precondition if the visionary green economy ideas are to become tangible for the day-to-day business of multilateral development cooperation and if any SDGs that may emerge are to be achieved.
SRI Working Paper, 2012
The SRI is a dedicated team of over 50 staff and 65 PhD students working on different aspects of sustainability. Adapting to environmental change and governance for sustainability are the Institute's overarching themes. SRI research explores these in interdisciplinary ways, drawing on geography, ecology, sociology, politics, planning, economics and management. Our specialist areas are: sustainable development and environmental change; environmental policy, planning and governance; ecological and environmental economics; business, environment and corporate responsibility; sustainable production and consumption.
Editorial: Global Governance and Sustainable Development
Environmental Values, 2001
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Policy Instruments for Sustainable Development at Rio +20
The Journal of Environment & Development, 2012
Twenty years ago, governments gathered for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. The "Rio Declaration" laid out several principles of sustainable development, including the central role of policy instruments. In this article, we take stock of where we stand today in implementing sound and effective environmental policy instruments throughout the world, particularly in developing and transitional economies. We argue that, as our experience with marketbased environmental policies has deepened over the past two decades, so has the ability to adapt instruments to complicated and heterogeneous contexts-but we are only just beginning, and the need to be further along is dire. One key factor may be that economists have not yet meaningfully accounted for the importance of political feasibility, which often hinges on risks to competitiveness and employment, or on the distribution of costs rather than on considerations of pure efficiency alone.