Category Archives: UN

by | 2012-06-19 · 10:00

New report to expose how corporations ‘capture’ the U.N.

From Friends of the Earth International

June 19, 2012, Rio de Janeiro – On June 19, 2012, on the eve of a key United Nations Summit due to take place June 20-22 in Rio De Janeiro [1], Friends of the Earth International will launch a new report exposing the increasing influence of major corporations and business lobby groups within the UN. [2]

“Governmental positions have been increasingly hijacked by narrow corporate interests linked to polluting industries and business sectors seeking to profit from the environment, the climate and the financial crises,” said Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends of the Earth International.
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by | · 08:00

Photo: Rio+20 World March of Women

Wild women take to the streets of Rio for the World March of Women, June 18. Photo: Jorge Glackman.

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by | 2012-06-18 · 17:30

Video: Grassroots Global Justice Alliance members speak about “toxic tour” in Rio de Janeiro

On June 16, as part of the Rio+ 20 Peoples’ Summit, organizers in Rio de Janeiro organized a “toxic tour” of communities in the city overburdened by industrial pollution and associated health and social problems. In the videos that follow, two members of the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance share their impressions from the tour.

Naeema Muhammed tells of her visit to the community of Santa Cruz.

Lottie Spady of East Michigan Environmental Action Council speaks about the toxic burdens faced by marginalized communities in Detroit and in Brazil.

Throughout the week, Climate Connections will be posting short videos of participants in Rio+20 Earth Summit and the alternative Peoples’ Summit.

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Filed under Ending the Era of Extreme Energy, Pollution, Rights, Resilience, and Restoration, Rio+20

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by | · 16:00

Youth invisible in Rio+20 vision

By Stephen Leahy, IPS, cross-posted from TerraViva

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jun 17 Youth and future generations do not deserve a voice in their own future, the Brazilian government appears to have arbitrarily decided here at the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development, where the theme is “The Future We Want”.

Intense lobbying is underway, including impromptu protests by youth in the hallways of the official RioCentro conference site. Photo: Stephen Leahy/IPS

Representatives of children and youth, as well as the European Union and other countries, want to see the summit conclude with an agreement to create a High-Level Representative for Sustainable Development and Future Generations.

However, Brazil, under its formal leadership of the summit, has deleted all references to this from the “outcome document” currently under negotiation.

It is a bit surprising considering 62 percent of Brazil’s 185 million people are under 29 years of age.

The proposed representative for future generations would act to balance the short-term nature of government electoral cycles by advocating for the interests and needs of future generations, says youth representative Alice Vincent of the World Future Council Foundation in London, UK.

“I strongly believe that a Rio+20 outcome that does not include the creation of such an advocate for the needs of future generations wouldn’t be worthy of the title The Future We Want,” Vincent told TerraViva.
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by | · 14:00

Rio+20 Peoples’ Summit: Grassroots groups confront the mastermind of the green economy

By Christy Rodgers for Climate Connections

18 June 2012 – Rio de Janeiro. The Peoples’ Summit opened this weekend with what is likely to be the highest level UN visit all week: by Achim Steiner, head of the UN Environment Program (UNEP). Steiner is perhaps the single person most responsible for the “green economy” model being touted as the best path to global sustainability. He was invited to speak – or rather listen – to the concerns of a broad array of social movement organizations that have been highly critical of this market-dependent strategy and what it means for the world’s people and ecosystems.

The mainstream US press, when it pays any attention at all to the official UN “Earth Summit,” seems to fret mostly about bureaucracy and obstructionism by poor countries. The concerns of hundreds, if not thousands of organizations and networks of peasant farmers, trade union workers, corporate watchdogs, indigenous peoples, and many other groups worldwide are quite different. They see the main problem is that the UN, like many member states, appears to have been functionally captured by the private sector. In the lead-up to the summit, major corporations positioning themselves to benefit from the market mechanisms being promoted have launched a greenwashing onslaught beyond anything the movement groups have seen before—which is considerable.
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by | · 11:30

Video: What’s wrong with the green economy?: Joanna Cabello of Carbon Trade Watch at Rio+20

Throughout the week, Climate Connections will post short videos of participants in Rio+20 and the Peoples’ Summit.

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by | · 09:00

Civil society activists join forces to protest at Rio+20

From Ibon International

Rio de Janeiro, Sunday, June 17, 2012 – Civil society activists from across the world joined for a protest on Sunday inside the Riocentro convention center to push the messsage: “Our Future, Our Voice.”

The activists, part of the Rights for Sustainability campaign, taped their mouths and held placards before gathered media.

The protest was in reaction to a lack of voice for civil society at Rio+20; back-tracking on the Rio principles established at the 1992 Earth Summit; and the prioritizing of unregulated corporate interests over human rights and equity.

Paul Quintos of IBON International, which coordinates the NGO Cluster on Rights and Equity at Rio+20, and the Rights for Sustainability advocacy platform, said: “Civil society’s ability to promote the voice of the people it represents has been steadily eroded throughout the process leading up to Rio+20.”
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by | 2012-06-17 · 20:58

Rio+20 Peoples’ Summit: Photo of the Day

An Amazonian man enjoys a pipe during the Kari-Oca II gathering outside Rio de Janeiro, a week-long encounter of Indigenous representatives from the Amazon and the world. Photo: Ben Powless.

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