The document discusses the upcoming Rio+20 conference and issues surrounding the green economy and sustainable development. It outlines the history of international environmental agreements leading up to Rio+20 and examines debates around defining a green economy, transitioning to green sectors, and policy measures. It also discusses proposals for strengthening the institutional framework for sustainable development and critiques approaches that could compromise Rio principles or promote privatization of nature. Alternative proposals are presented for building people-centered sustainable economies.

1. what color is your
green economy?
Kalikasan Partylist
World Environment Day 2012

2. Outline
• History of Rio+20
• Issues at Rio+20
• Green economy in the context of sustainable develop
• Institutional Framework for Sustainable
Development
• Our stake at Rio+20

3. History of Rio+20
20 - 22 June 2012:
“Rio+20”, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
1992: Rio Earth Summit
Agenda 21, Rio Declaration and the Forest principles 2002: World Summit on Sustainable
Adopted by 178 governments, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Development (Johannesburg)
1983: UN World Commission on
Environment and Development 1987: Brundtland report on “Sustainable Development”
Environmental protection, economic growth and social equity
April 22, 1970:
First Earth Day 1972: First UN Conference on the
Human Environment (Stockholm)
1962: “Silent Spring”, Rachel Carson

4. Issues at Rio+20
• Two themes
• Green Economy
• Institutional Framework for Sustainable
Development
• Rio+20 is a UN process: involves
governments and treaty making

5. “Green economy”
UN Environmental Programme
One that “results in improved human well-being and
social equity, while significantly reducing
environmental risks and ecological scarcities.”
• Produce low greenhouse gas emissions;
• Use resources more efficiently;
• Continue to generate growth, income and
jobs;
• Observe social equity and inclusiveness.

6. Transition to a “green
economy”
• Measure the monetary value of the
environment and its resources (natural
capital)
• Prove the viability and profitability of
enhancing this natural capital as a “new
engine of growth”
• Create the enabling conditions
incorporating broader environmental and
social criteria.

7. Green vs. Brown
• “Brown economies”
• Engine of growth is physical- technological and
financial capital (also called “built capital”)
• Wealth comes at the cost of environmental losses.
• “Green economies” refocuses on natural capital
• “Can generate as much growth and employment as
a brown economy”
• Yielding more environmental and social benefits.

8. “Greening” Key
Economic Sectors
• Natural capital (4): agriculture, fisheries, forests and
water
• Needs “more sustainable and equitable management”
• More investments that rebuild or maintain ecosystem
services on which they are based
• Built capital: energy, manufacturing, waste, construction,
transportation, tourism and cities
• Adopting technologies and processes which are low-
carbon and more energy- and resource efficient

9. Policy measures for a
“green economy”
• Prioritized investment and spending to stimulate greening of sectors.
From $1.2-3.4 trillion annually until 2050. (~ 2% of global GDP)
• Taxes and market-based instruments as “powerful tools to promote
green investment and innovation.”
• Reform on subsidies and other “poorly managed government
spending” in environmentally harmful activities
• Framework of laws, regulations and enforcement at national level to
reduce business risks and increase confidence among green investors
and markets.
• Investment in capacity-building and training essential to green
transition.
• Strengthened international governance to promote a green economy

10. Institutional Framework for
Sustainable Development
• 1992 Earth Summit described general contours of global
governance for sustainable development through Rio
Declaration on Environment and Development, Agenda 21,
and the Rio Conventions
• International action and cooperation
• Principle of common but differentiated responsibilities
• “Polluter pays” principle
• Policy integration and coherence
• Enhanced access to participation, information and justice
• Precautionary principle

12. Options for IFSD
• Enhancing UNEP
• Establish a new umbrella for sustainable
development
• Establish a specialized agency such as a World
Environmental Organization
• Reforming the Economic and Social Council and the
Commission on Sustainable Development
• Enhancing institutional reforms and streamlining
existing structures

13. Problems and critique
• Same economic model has been dressed in green. “Green” or “Brown” as
long as it is for the profit of a few would still be the same.
• No question on models of consumption and industrial overproduction.
• Opens new territories to the economy that exploits people and
environment
• Submitting all the vital cycles of nature to the market's rules
• Privatization and commodification of nature and of its vital functions
• Strengthening speculative financial markets through carbon markets,
environmental services, compensations for biodiversity and other
mechanisms
• Technological solutions and not addressing real causes of poverty
• Expansion of agro-industrial food system at the expense of local producers

14. Regression from Rio
principles
• Some rich-country governments propose a regression from the principles
agreed at Rio 92
• Removing the principle of common but differentiated responsibility, the
precautionary principle, the right to information and participation.
• Threaten long-fought for rights: right of indigenous peoples, the right of
peoples and nations and farmers, the right to water, the rights of working
men and women, migrant rights, the right to food, housing, the city, the
rights of youth and women, the right to health concerning sexuality and
reproduction, education and cultural rights.
• Attempts to stablish Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which will be used
to promote "Green economy",
• Proposals to implement forms of global environmental governance, through the
World Bank and other financial institutions
• New cycle of debt and structural adjustment dressed in green.

15. Ways forward
• On the green economy
• Public enterprises should remain in public control and privatization should
be reversed.
• Promote sufficiency based economies
• Promote domestic closed-loop manufacturing with minimum use of energy
and materials, longer life spans and with maximum reuse and recycling of
parts and components.
• Promote mass public transportation systems.
• Implement genuine agrarian, aquatic, pastureland and forestry reforms; and
promote biodiverse ecological agriculture
• Stop profit oriented exploitation and destruction of natural resources
• People centered sustainable economies should promote the rights of
indigenous peoples and local communities

16. Ways forward
• Operationalize and implement the Rio principles including the Right to
Development, common but differentiated responsibility, the polluter
pays principle and the precautionary principle.
• Build a strong body on sustainable development that works on a
global level and can integrate the disparate UN bodies
• Rio+20 should work for the immediate establishment of a broad
inclusive multi-stakeholder consultative body or network tasked with
supporting the promotion and implementation of Agenda 21 and
Rio+20 resolutions.
• Ultimately, the effectiveness of a global body on sustainable
development rests on the effective functioning of similar institutions at
the local and national levels and its relevance to people’s lives

17. Rising up to the challenge of
building our own green economy
• Communities have shown extreme resilience and creativity in
confronting the spiraling multiple crises of the global capitalist
system
• We assert our economic, social, cultural and political rights in
light of its steady erosion through the years
• Build a new world where development is for the well-being and
dignity of all
• Prosperity is created through shared resources and efforts
• Where nature’s limits are respected
• Where nations, peoples and communities cooperate to
ensure democracy, justice, equity, peace and prosperity for all.