The Lost Sandy speech to UN Committee 2 side event
Sustainable
Development in the twenty first century
The 'lost speech' as i now refer to it was on a project that Stakeholder Forum and a number of other organisations had been involved with in the run up to Rio+20. The concept was put together by David LeBlanc of UNDESA and the UN Rio+20 Secretariat.
The objective of 'SustainableDevelopment in the 21st century' (SD21) was to construct a coherent vision of
sustainable development in the 21st century.
It took stock of the changes having occurred since the Earth
Summit in 1992, and provides a vision and way forward for the
international community, national governments and other stakeholders in advancing
the sustainable development agenda in an integrated manner. SD21 had a number of studies that were brought
together.
The study was a collaboration between 49 global modellers and
scenario analysts. It draws lessons from the last forty years It looks at
ultimate goals, visions, strategy and targets, policies and actions as well as
investment needs.
It looked at past trends against sustainable development
compared with baseline scenarios for the future and
contrasted them with sustainable
development scenarios. The study called
for renewed efforts to create global sustainable development scenarios.
The reports on:
·
Food and Agriculture: sustainability
for the twenty first century;
·
challenges and ways forward for the
urban sector,
·
Sustainable energy systems;
·
Sustainable Land management for the
21st century
On food and agriculture the study had
more than 70 global agri-food leaders and looked at concrete steps for
sustainable and resilient food and agriculture systems
On the urban area the study highlights the challenges for the next
30-50 years and focuses on the increasing importance of cities for sustainable
development. It underlines the need for much better vertical relationships
between cities and higher levels of government.
In the area of sustainable energy systems the study
documents the main views and suggests that what we need is a no regrets
direction to achieve sustainably in the energy sector - enabling universal
access to modern energy.
In the area of sustainable land management the study looks at the competing claims to land
use in the 21st century. The report offers possible options to improve the
sustainability of land management for the next decades.
This part of the report is a synthesis of ideas about what a
new economy in nature might look like and how we might get there. It looks at ecological economics including
sustainable scale equitable distribution and efficient allocation - a model
that doesn't have GDP as its ultimate goal. It looks at social and natural
capital as important part of any new inclusive, green and fair economy.
The final study was the one I was involved with a twenty
year assessment of Agenda 21 and the Rio Declaration.
Agenda 21 - Successes
• Arguably
the biggest success has come through driving ambition on what sustainable
outcomes are achievable on a sector by sector basis, e.g. biodiversity.
• Engendered
a much stronger notion of participation in decision-making, e.g. Major
Groups.
• Local
Agenda 21 has been one of the most extensive follow-up programmes.
Agenda 21 -
Challenges
• Sectors-basis
may have contributed to defeating the concept of integration that is at the
heart of sustainable development.
• Globally,
consumption and production patterns remain unsustainable.
• Some
sectors were not included in Agenda 21, e.g. energy and mining.
• Other
sectors today may be prominent than their space in Agenda 21, for
example transport and waste flows.
• Lost
Chapter 41 - Transnational Corporations.
Agenda 21 Conclusions
• Agenda 21 retains strong relevance,
and remains the most comprehensive undertaking by the UN system to promote
sustainable development.
• While
there are some gaps in coverage, the issues that humanity is struggling with
now are more or less similar those covered by the chapters of Agenda 21.
• Agenda 21 has acquired considerable
coverage amongst nation states, its implementation remains far from universal
or effective.
• And
progress has been patchy, and despite some elements of good practice most Agenda 21 outcomes have still not been
realized.
Rio Declaration -
Successes
• As
a soft law instrument, successful implementation of the Rio Declaration takes
many shapes and can be loosely understood through analyzing the various
‘offspring’ agreements or national laws.
• Principle 5 – eradicating poverty and
raising the standards of living for all, e.g. MDGs.
• Principle 10 – access to justice,
information and public participation – is the foundation of the successful
regional instrument that enshrines the principle in the Aarhus Convention.
• Principle 15 – the precautionary
principle – is widely accepted as a foundation of environmental law at both the
national and international levels.
Rio Declaration -
Challenges
• Principle 5 - “reducing disparities in
standards of living”, has been relatively forgotten.
• Principle 10 - Additionally access to
justice remains a barrier for many who seek legal redress for environmental
damages or concerns.
• Around
the polluter pays principle (Principle 16) there remain ideological differences
to its practical application.
• Principle 8 – sustainable production
and consumption and the promotion of appropriate demographic policies – is
deemed to have been unsuccessful in achieving its intended goal.
Rio Declaration -
Conclusions
• The
Rio Principles are the heir to
the Stockholm principles agreed in 1972, and both have a primary focus on
environment and development.
• This
framework left largely open interpretations about was how to achieve
sustainable development in practice.
• Overall,
the gaps remain because of the difficulty faced with transposing soft law
principles into implementable law.
Summary
• Stronger
implementation strategy e.g. guidelines for implementation. What was
missing in Rio was the section that was in Agenda 21 called activities. This
could be drawn up as a set of guidelines by UNDESA with other relevant UN
Agencies and Programmes focused on section 5.
• Lost
chapter -> Convention on CSRA. This became para 47 in Rio -
guidlines for corporate sustainability reporting. This has spawned the Friends
of para 47 under the ample leadership of Brazil, South Africa, Denmark and
France
• Long
term thinking in institutions e.g. UN High Commissioner for Future Generations.
Governments were not ready in Rio for this but they should relook at it in
light of 2015. A study into what the possible role could be should be set up by
governments with stakeholders.
• Long
term thinking in global economy e.g. sustainability in sovereign wealth funds,
credit rating agencies, pension funds. These
ideas should be picked up by the Resource Mobilization Committee which will be
set up shortly buy governments with 30 members. It offers a chance to bring a
matrix of possible funding for sustainable development to the 2015 development
goals Summit.
I would add that your
deliberations on the High Level Political Forum will be critical to the future
of sustainable development. This forum as Maurice Strong has said needs teeth.
We know that the
current economic model, which has brought unprecedented prosperity to the more
developed countries and to particular people in those countries, has only
deepened the disparity between them and most developing countries. The
parallels of the ecological problems with the financial crisis are clear. The
banks and financial institutions privatized the gains and socialized the
losses. We are doing the same with the planet’s natural capital.
Our present
lifestyles are drawing down the ecological capital from other parts of the
world and from future generations. We are increasingly becoming the most
irresponsible generation our planet has seen. The past 30 years have been
characterized by irresponsible capitalism, pursuing limitless economic growth
at the expense of both society and environment, with little or no regard for
the natural resource base upon which such wealth is built.
The future can either
be a me future or a we future. If we stand any chance of creating a planet that
we can live on sustainably then it has to be a we future. This will require a
different politics than we are seeing here in New York, in our capitals in our
companies. Sustainable Development in the 21st century is a contribution to the
path we could take. I ask you to read it and act on it.
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