by | 2012-06-13 · 16:00

IBON International: “Put rights and Rio principles at the heart of Rio+20”

IBON International and Rights for Sustainability Delegation at Rio+20 Summit

Rio de Janeiro, Wednesday, June 13, 2012 — IBON International’s 34-strong “Rights for Sustainability” delegation of civil society representatives from Asia, Africa and Latin America arrived in Rio today with the message, “Put Rights and the Rio Principles at the Heart of Rio+20.”

The Rights for Sustainability (R4S) delegation is an advocacy platform coordinated by Philippines-based civil society organisation IBON International to push for a rights-based approach to sustainable development. It will be involved in a series of side events at Rio+20 as well as monitoring continuing negotiations on the summit outcome document in the Preparatory Committee (Prep Com) meetings at Rio Centro, and the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development itself. IBON International coordinates the NGO Rights and Equity Cluster for Rio+20.
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by | · 10:00

Rio + 20: IITC joins Indigenous Peoples from around the world to call for a new model of development

“Indigenous Peoples continue to challenge the development model based on resource extraction and market-based models, which fails to recognize that we human beings are an integral part of the natural world, and also fails to respect human rights, including the inherent rights of Indigenous Peoples.”

—“Indigenous Peoples in Route to the Rio +20 Conference,” Global Preparatory Meeting of Indigenous Peoples, August 22 – 24, 2011, Manaus, Brazil

The International Indian Treaty Council is pleased to be a part of two great events during the upcoming Rio +20 Conference in Brazil. Please click title for more information.

“Indigenous Peoples, Food Sovereignty and Sustainable Development”, June 14, 5:30 – 7 PM, Room T-4, Rio Centro, Avenida Salvador Allende, 6555 – Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND SELF-DETERMINATION, “Standing Together for our Food Sovereignty, Traditional Cultures and Ways of Life” JUNE 17TH – 19TH, 2012, Museu da República, Rua do Catete 153, Catete, cep 22220 000


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by | 2012-06-12 · 15:00

Climate Connections exclusive: World Agricultural Report, ignored by states, promotes agroecology

By Laetitia Mailhes

Producing food is undoubtedly the most vital of all human activities. Yet, in conversations about climate change, agriculture has been astoundingly overlooked. General approaches to climate have typically focused on energy, or, at best, on the vague marker of ‘sustainability’.

Yet, agriculture is the elephant in the room. Think about it: agriculture is about environmental conservation (lest we waste away the natural resources we depend on, such as soil, clean water, biodiversity, fisheries, forests), energy use (dependency on fossil fuels makes our food system extremely vulnerable to oil price volatility and availability), public health, social justice, local communities, land rights, economic security. You name it: food and farming are at the heart of every issue on the table.
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Filed under Climate Change, Rights, Resilience, and Restoration, Rio+20

by | · 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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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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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