Yearly Archives: 2012

by | 2012-06-12 · 10:10

Civil society groups denounce Sustainable Energy for All initiative promoted at Rio+20 Earth Summit

As the final negotiations for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development Rio+20 conference get underway in Rio de Janeiro, almost 50 civil society groups have published an open letter denouncing the UN Secretary General’s new “Sustainable Energy For All Initiative” (SEFA). The letter states: “The SEFA process and Action Agenda are deeply flawed and threaten to further entrench destructive, polluting and unjust energy policies for corporate profit under the guise of alleviating energy poverty, while undermining community rights to energy sovereignty and self determination.”

The “Sustainable Energy for All” initiative was announced in September 2011, and a “high level panel” was established by the UN secretary general, Ban Ki Moon. The panel includes major investors in the fossil fuel economy including, Statoil, Eskom, Siemens and Riverstone Holdings. The initiative’s stated goals are to 1) double the rate of improvement in energy efficiency, 2) double the share of renewables in the global energy mix by 2030, and 3) provide access to modern energy services for all of humanity. An action agenda is being put forward for endorsement at Rio+20, along with commitments for action from countries and groups.

Groups denouncing the initiative view it as an attempt to use claims of poverty alleviation to further expand corporate control over energy policies with the aim of gaining access to new markets and investment opportunities. The letter points out that the initiative’s goals are inadequate,that it promotes dangerous and unsustainable forms of energy and that there is a deplorable lack of transparency and democratic participation in the process thus far.
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Filed under Actions / Protest, Africa, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Corporate Globalization, Ending the Era of Extreme Energy, Energy, False Solutions to Climate Change, Green Economy, Greenwashing, Industrial agriculture, Land Grabs, Rio+20

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by | 2012-06-08 · 16:00

Rights of nature at the 2012 Earth Summit (Rio+20)

NOTE: GJEP will be traveling to the Rio+20 Earth Summit and the People’s Summit in Rio de Janerio Brazil next week, where we will be participating in actions to advocate for environmental human rights, as well as covering the events for Climate Connections, KPFK Radio, Alternet, Yes! Magazine, and Earth Island Journal. One of the issues dear to our movement is the Rights of Mother Earth, which we will be promoting along with our friends at the Indigenous Environmental Network and other allies. Global Exchange will be launching a report on the Rights of Mother Earth and the ‘green economy,’ described below in an advance note by Shannon Biggs. Anne Petermann and Jeff Conant of GJEP co-authored an essay that will be published in this collection. — GJEP

 By Shannon Biggs, cross-posted from Global Exchange

 “There is no word for NATURE in my language. ‘Nature’ in English, seems to refer to that which is separate from human beings. It is a distinction we don’t recognize.”  

–Audrey Shenandoah, Clan Mother of the Onondaga Nation

The UN Earth Summit, known as Rio+20, will be held June 20th-22nd, 2012 in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.

If you’re old enough to recall, think back to 1992: the year of the original Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Way back then—in the days before space-age smart-phones, when newspapers were delivered daily by a kid on a bike, and college tuition was within reach for the working class—the human race was concerned about what we were doing to the planet. The attention of a hopeful world was focused on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for a historic gathering of nations, tasked with developing solutions for the emerging crisis of climate change, environmental degradation and increasing poverty.
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Filed under Rights, Resilience, and Restoration, Rio+20

by | 2012-06-07 · 12:15

Briefing: What US activists need to know about Rio+20

From 15 June to 23 June, Global Justice Ecology Project will be in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil attending and covering the United Nation’s Rio+20 summit as well as the alternative Peoples’ Summit that is being organized by Brazilian and international groups to discuss socially and ecologically just alternatives to the dominant economic system.  The Rio+20 Summit, on the other hand, will be promoting the development of a so-called “Green Economy,” which has been described as the “Greenwash Economy” or the same old “Greed Economy” in a green wrapping.  Stay tuned to climate-connections.org for updates from Rio from 15 June to 23 June, as well as  news related to the intertwined issues of forest protection, climate chaos, Indigenous Peoples’ rights, social justice and economic domination that is the mission of Global Justice Ecology Project’s Climate Connections blog.

GJEP Communications Director Jeff Conant will be joining Grassroots Global Justice and the lead climate negotiator of Bolivia to give a briefing on Thursday, 7 June on Rio+20: What civil society is trying to accomplish, why it is important, and how we can do it.

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Filed under Green Economy, Rights, Resilience, and Restoration, Rio+20

by | 2012-06-06 · 19:00

Third World Network update: Sustainable Development Goals – a key deliverable?

By Meena Raman, for Third World Network

Geneva, 6 June – As the third round of informal negotiations concluded in New York on 2 June on the outcome document for the Rio+20 Conference, one area being touted as a key deliverable for the Summit is the launch of a process to define “Sustainable Development Goals” (SDGs).
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Filed under Rio+20

by | · 14:00

The people of the world confront the advance of capitalism: Rio +20 and beyond

Position Paper of La Via Campesina

Cross-posted from La Via Campesina

June 6, 2012 —  Governments from all over the world will meet in Río de Janeiro, Brasil from June 20-22 2012, to supposedly commemorate 20 years since the “Earth Summit”, the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development, that established for the first time a global agenda for “sustainable development”. During this summit, in 1992, three international conventions were adopted: the Convention on Biological Diversity, the United Nations Convention on Climate Change, and the Convention to Fight Desertification. Each of these promised to initiate a series of actions destined to protect the planet and all of the life on it, and to allow all human beings to enjoy a life of dignity.
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Filed under Food Sovereignty, Rio+20

by | · 12:51

Human rights remain under threat in Rio+20 negotiating text, warns IBON International

NOTE: This statement comes to us from IBON International — GJEP

New York, Friday, June, 2011 — Real commitments on human rights, financing and macroeconomic reforms that would help developing countries, and regulation of the private sector remain absent from the draft document of the Rio+20 outcome document, warns international civil society organization, IBON International.

After the third and final “informal informal” prior to the meeting of the United Nations Committee on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) to be held Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, delegates from member states of the United Nations failed to make any significant headway towards renewing focus and commitment on sustainable development after five days of intense negotiations in New York.

The New York meeting is the third in a series of negotiations to produce the document to be agreed to by heads of state from across the world at the Rio+20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, later this month

IBON International, one of the civil society organization officially observing the intersessional meeting and coordinating NGOs advocating for a rights-based approach to sustainable development, recognises that there has been progress in terms of the inclusion of language referring to human rights in the text, such as the right to water and basic sanitation. This has been largely due to constant pressure from civil society organizations, as well as from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and United Nations Special Rapporteurs.

However there are still no real commitments to establish enabling conditions for the protection, respect and fulfilment of human rights in the context of the current economic and ecological crisis.

  • Countries are still shifting the burden to the private sector at the same time removing language that would subject the private sector to stricter public or social regulation.
  • Developed countries are still opposing any commitment to ensure adequate public financing for sustainable development, especially for developing countries, in line with the Right to Development.
  • There are still no commitments to undertake systemic macro-economic reforms in trade, finance, investments policy which currently prevent countries, particularly developing countries, from generating decent jobs, providing basic health and education, and developing green productive capacity.
  • There are still no clear commitments to rights-based accountability mechanisms.

Paul Quintos, program manager at IBON International and coordinator of the NGO Cluster on Rights and Equity, said:  “Whatever nice pledges come out of Rio will mean nothing if people cannot hold our states accountable for them.”

“If Rio+20 merely pays lip service to the vision of sustainable development but leaves the private sector in the drivers seat, then many civil society groups and social movements are likely to denounce and disown Rio+20 as a corporate green agenda.”

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by | 2012-06-05 · 10:30

Tell the US State Department: No Greed Economy at Rio+20!

 NOTE: We will be accompanying our friends at Grassroots Global Justice Alliance and other members of the Climate Justice Alignment, Global Forest Coalition, Climate Justice Now! and thousands of social movement groups to the Rio20 summit, and the Cupola dos Povos, in two weeks in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In advance of the summit, we raise our voices together with theirs to tell US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and US Rio+20 lead negotiator John Matuszak to reject the false solutions of the “Green Economy” and invest in solutions to the ecological and economic crises that put our communities to work, cool the planet, and transition environmental control back to local economies. — GJEP

Dear members, friends and allies of Grassroots Global Justice Alliance (GGJ),

The global 1% is converging in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil this June 20-22 at the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development to unveil their “Green Economy” strategy—but we know that just calling something “green” doesn’t mean it’s good for people or for the planet.  The “Rio+20” Conference is a key moment when world governments have an opportunity to either act to protect our future, or continue on the same failed strategies that are threating our future.

The US State Department needs to hear from you today!

The 99% are also mobilizing to Brazil this June.

Grassroots Global Justice and ally groups from the Climate Justice Alignment process will join thousands of people from social movements around the world converging in Rio from June 15-22 to hold a parallel People’s Summit and to demand an end to profit-driven dirty energy industries like oil drilling and pipelines, market-based strategies like carbon-trading and forest exploitation, and extreme energy like fossil fuels and incinerators.

The People’s Summit is calling for a June 5th week of action in defense of the environment & against transnational corporations, and a June 20th Global Action Day for social and environmental justice, against the commodification of life, and in defense of the commons.

TAKE ACTION! 

Tell US Secretary of State Hillary Clintonand US Rio+20 lead negotiator John Matuszak to reject the false solutions of the “Green Economy” and invest in solutions to the ecological and economic crises that put our communities to work, cool the planet, and transition environmental control back to local economies.

While we are in Rio, we will call on the US government to take a stand against the worst tendencies of “Green Capitalism” and the “Greed Economy,” and instead invest in solutions to the ecological and economic crises that put our communities to work, cool the planet, and transition environmental control back to local economies.

On June 20th, GGJ delegates will be in the streets with our social movement allies La Vía Campesina, World March of Women, and other global movements, taking creative action to deliver these demands to John Matuszak and Hillary Clinton.

Help us reach 5,000 signatures!  Add your voice–sign the petition!

In the words of our allies in La Vía Campesina: “globalize the struggle, globalize hope!”

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Filed under Actions / Protest, Green Economy, Rio+20

by | 2012-06-04 · 13:30

Help Stop Corporate Domination of the United Nations

On June 5, on World Environment Day, and two weeks before a major United Nations (UN) Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Friends of the Earth International (FOEI) is beginning a campaign urging the UN to limit the excessive influence of multinational corporations on its decision-making processes.

FOEI is launching an online public petition asking UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon  to take the steps needed to reclaim the UN from corporate capture.

Already more than 335 civil society organizations representing millions of people from around the world signed an earlier joint statement initiated by FOEI and nine other organizations, denouncing the corporate domination of the UN.

Signatories are requesting a clear public response from the UN that its priority is to serve the public interest instead of business interests, and that the UN will take concrete steps to limit business and industry’s influence in UN decision-making processes.

“We have clear and troubling examples of how major corporations and business lobby groups exercise an increasing and unacceptable level of influence on UN decision-making processes,” said Paul de Clerck, corporates campaign coordinator at FOEI.

“We are demanding a formal response from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and from the UN member states, we want them to curb the business lobby at the UN, to halt  UN-business partnerships, starting with companies involved in human rights violations, and to introduce global rules to hold companies accountable for their negative impacts,” he added.

“The people are reclaiming the UN from the influence of big business and calling on  governments to restate that their over-riding prerogative is to serve the public interest… Friends of the Earth International will participate in the alternative Peoples Summit in Rio to underscore that the system needs to change in order to solve the current crisis,” said Brazil Lucia Ortiz, Economic Justice International program coordinator at Friends of the Earth International.

Background Information

This month marks the 20th anniversary of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, also known as the Rio Earth Summit. For 20 years governments have tried to agree on ways to save our planet—and ultimately our lives. As we are facing multiple global crises today, people around the world can no longer remain silent about the false solutions offered and the environmental injustices that remain unresolved.

The UN is the only forum we have to address global problems, in which all of the world’s 192 countries have an equal voice. However, more and more we see that UN policies do not necessarily serve the public interest but instead promote the interests of corporations.

Steps to be taken include limiting the privileged status that business currently has in official UN negotiations and policy-making; limits on the role of the “business and industry” major group; disclosure of existing relations and links between the UN with the private sector; a code of conduct for UN officials; a review of existing partnerships with corporations and trade associations, and a halt to entering into any new such partnerships; increased transparency around lobbying; and the establishment of a legally binding framework to hold companies accountable to environmental, human rights and labor rights law.

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Filed under Actions / Protest, Corporate Globalization, Rio+20, UNFCCC