by | 2012-06-18 · 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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by | · 14:30

Audio–Rio+20 Peoples’ Summit: Indigenous peoples speak out against REDD

Audio and photo by Anne Petermann, Global Justice Ecology Project

Marifel, of the Asia-Pacific Indigenous Youth Network speaks. Photo: Petermann/GJEP

Indigenous Peoples held a press conference to denounce the negative impacts of REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) during the opening activities of the People’s Summit, Friday, 15 June, 2012. To download or listen to the interview, click on the link below:

Marifel of the Asia-Pacific Indigenous Youth Network Speaks on REDD

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by | 2012-06-16 · 21:08

Rio+20 Peoples’ Summit: Photo of the Day

Minawa, President of the Federation of the Hunakui People, from Acre, Brazil, at a workshop about REDD at the Peoples Summit Rio+20, Rio de Janeiro. Photo: Berenice Sanchez

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by | · 20:37

Rio+20 Action Alert: “The future we don’t want” e-petition

Today ANPED, the Northern Alliance for Sustainability, with the support of other civil society organizations active in the Rio+20 negotiations, has launched “THE FUTURE WE DONT WANT” e-petition campaign, and they are asking people to sign and share it with others.

The petition was written as “a response to the new negotiating text [for the Rio +20 agreement] presented today by the Brazilian government, and tomorrow we will bring this to the attention of European Commission delegates and the press.  The text does not make a single mention of environmental justice, Principle 10 or a high-level representative for  the future. While efficiency is quoted 14 times and economic growth 20 times, there is not a single quote on sufficiency, planetary boundaries or limits. That does not reflect what the people want.”

This petition urges the Government of Brazil, the UN Sustainable Development Conference Secretary General and all Member States to stop negotiating their short-term national agendas and to urgently agree now on transitional actions for global sustainable progress.

The organizers urge their fellow citizens, the 99% of the world, to stand up for the future we really want, and not this one imposed by a few: the 1% negotiators and their elite constituencies — so that the voices of the majority finally shape the future.

TO SIGN AND SHARE THE “FUTURE WE DONT WANT” E-PETITION

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