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| Sand Castle pledge for the future we want: Rio+20 at Copacabana beach. |
Sue Riddlestone and Freya Seath, BioRegional
A coalition of the willing
Every country and interested member of civil society will be reviewing the Rio+20 Outcome Document and thinking ‘what shall we do next?’ Although light on concrete commitments, there are enough ingredients to create a future we want. As one of the two Rio+20 Executive Coordinators, Brice Lalonde, stated, “we can go forward with a coalition of the willing”, a coalition BioRegional and its partners will join. After nearly two years of Rio+20 involvement, BioRegional is keen to play its part as expert practitioner on sustainable living. Developed over 20 years, BioRegional was set up to co-create and implement sustainable communities, products and services, enabling the achievement of One Planet Living in cost effective ways.
SCP, sustainable cities and human settlements
BioRegional made a voluntary commitment for Rio+20 to train 10,000 people to use the One Planet Living framework. The agreement at Rio+20 to adopt the 10 Year Framework Programme (FWP) on sustainable consumption and production (SCP), outlined in paragraphs 224-6 of the Outcome Document, could help to spread civil society implementation initiatives such as this.
Many nations have asked Bioregional to help them build sustainable one planet communities in their countries. A Rio+20 commitment was made to work with a favela community in Rio to develop an aspirational programme of good living within planetary means. A workshop held last weekend with residents resulted in lots of ideas to improve their neighbourhood and identified numerous green job opportunities. The UN friends of sustainable cities initiative and UN Habitat would be well suited to support the text on this subject in paragraphs 134-7. In addition, paragraph 125 on sustainable energy provides an important interrelated area for implementation.
Green Economy and Environmental-Economic Accounts
Practical experience tells us that if you set out to deliver sustainable living within the natural limits of the planet, a huge array of new economic opportunities present themselves. The workshop in the favela is a case in point. Paragraphs 56-75 set out important principles for a green economy.
Implementing One Planet Living generally starts with measuring impacts and available resources. As Helen Clark, Director of UNDP put it at their ‘beyond GDP’ side event on Wednesday, ‘governments need better indicators to make better decisions’. Ms Clark also reminded us of social progress indicators such as the UN Human Development Index. Paragraph 38 asks the UN Statistical Commission, with UN bodies, to develop broader measures of progress to complement GDP. The System of Environmental Economic Accounts (SEEA) as agreed in Agenda 21 could support such a development. This can also contribute to measuring progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) once they are established. Commitment to this has already been demonstrated this week by 57 governments at the UK High Level dialogue on Natural Capital accounting on Wednesday. That is 30% of the United Nations! On Thursday the USA and Brazil also committed to SEEA.
Leadership with participation of civil society
The commitments to SEEA demonstrate how it is now up to governments to show leadership in implementation – but not alone. Creating the future we want will only happen through partnership between business and civil society – something which has come out clearly in paragraphs 42-55. In this regard, it is worth noting that more businesses attended Rio+20 than any other previous UN summit.
SDGs
The SDGs are found in paragraphs 245-250. These will presumably be developed as part of a post-2015 framework. Hence most countries may likely wait until then to implement them. BioRegional has championed the SDGs since their conceptual inception as a powerful step forward in conceptualising the future and its development potential. In addition to their novelty, the SDGs complement BioRegional’s ten simple One Planet Living principles. Together, SDGs and the One Planet Living principles could create a common language for sustainability.
The Outcome Document provides a framework for national action. As we all know, this meeting in Rio is not the end, but a beginning of the next stage on our journey to deliver on sustainable development. BioRegional, and others from civil society, look forward to working together to create ‘The Future We Want’.
More information
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