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Maurice Strong

"Climate change is the biggest single challenge humans have ever faced. Unlike other problems, which can be solved regionally or sectorally, climate change effects the very future of life on earth. It is the greatest security problem we have ever faced."

Rio+20 must make nations accountable


Statement by Maurice Strong at High-level Symposium on the U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development, Beijing, China on 8 to 9 September 2011, on "Assessing progress and gaps in 20 years of sustainable development".

First I want to commend Conference Secretary General Mr. Sha Zukang for his initiative in convening this Symposium and the Government of China for co-sponsoring and hosting it. 

I view Rio+20 as another significant milestone on the road from Stockholm through the 1992 Earth Summit to a sustainable future for humanity. 

Rio+20 takes place at a time when political priorities are focused on the immediate issues of economic and financial crises and accompanying political turbulence in much of the world. The resistance to change in patterns of production and consumption has deepened. The result is a significant decline in the priority being accorded to longer term issues, notably the environment and climate change. This does not augur well for the success of Rio+20. Prospects for the conference and preparations for it are constrained by limited finances, deeply entrenched political differences and perceptions of lack of progress in climate change negotiations. 

Over all, conditions are not nearly as conducive to progress in renewal of the momentum generated by the Earth Summit in 1992 or in implementation of the agreements reached there and at subsequent fora. 
This underscores the urgent need for decisive action at Rio+20 and the importance of the contribution which this Symposium must make to it. 

There has been progress since 1992 in the understanding of and commitment to sustainable development and in the number of examples of positive progress in applying it. This has demonstrated the contributions which sustainable development makes to the transition to the green economy in which developing countries must participate fairly and fully and in accord with the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. 
The private sector as the principal instrument of development must be guided by incentives and penalties set by government designed to foster sustainable development. Experience has shown that this produces both profits and environmental improvement. An important example is tourism and the broader concept of “travelism”, the world’s largest industry, which has a special role in achieving sustainability of the environment on which the industry depends. 

The dynamic growth of major newly developing countries, of which our host country China is such a primary example, are lifting many of their people out of poverty and driving the growth of the world economy. China’s remarkable economic progress is accompanied by its strong commitment to sustainable, harmonious development guided by science. All this is encouraging but far from sufficient. Many in both these countries and the more traditional industrialized countries as well as most of the people of the least developed countries are being left behind. The gap between rich and poor in all countries is widening. The prospect of further increases in the prices of food and energy will further exacerbate the plight of the poor. Globally this is not sustainable. 

The commitments that governments made at the Earth Summit and other fora remain largely unfulfilled in the progress they have made in their implementation. Particularly important is the failure of more industrialized countries to implement their commitment to provide significant new and additional financial resources to less developed countries as well as access to technologies and markets. Their full acceptance of the principle of common but differentiated responsibility must be re-enforced. 

Rio+20 must agree on specific measures to make nations accountable for implementation of their commitments while introducing some innovative means of contributing to this. 

Let me briefly mention some of the initiatives which could contribute to the success of Rio+20:

1. A parallel process in which civil society organizations in each country provide an objective assessment of their country’s performance in implementing past commitments and identifying targets for commitments at Rio+20. An initiative is already being launched with the leadership of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) and the Stakeholders Forum to do this in parallel with and as a complement to official assessments. 

2. Strengthening the institutional framework of sustainable development by elevating the status of the Commission on Sustainable Development and reinforcing its economic dimension by the commitments of governments to including high level participation by finance and economic ministries as well as participation of the World Bank and regional development banks. This will give concrete effect to the reality that it is through the economy that most decisions and policies which drive sustainability are made. 
According to the United Nations Environment Program, the status of a specialized agency, as already proposed would be an important means of strengthening the environmental dimensions of sustainable development. It must treat UNEP’s role as systemic in nature, not sectoral;

3. Facilitating the establishment of a new financial mechanism designed to give people who have most of the world’s money a means to participate in financing of sustainable development. This could be done by the issuance of “Earth Bonds” which the investment community would market broadly. Governments would be urged to authorize and/or facilitate this by such means as offering tax deductions for their purchases. Capital realized through the sale of Earth Bonds would be used to finance sustainable development projects for which those in the least developed countries would have priority;

 4. Experience has demonstrated, as notably in Japan, that economic efficiency is a key to sustainability – efficiency in the development, conservation and use of energy, water, soil, biodiversity and resources, the recycling and re-use of wastes. Focusing on the need to help less developed countries achieve these will contribute to more effective management of the urban-rural relationship which is critical to the achievement of sustainability.   

5. Recognizing that implementation depends on motivation and that the ethical dimension provides a basis for the motivation of actions, both individual and collective, it would be important for Rio+20 to recognize and endorse the Earth Charter. The Earth Charter has been endorsed by people and organizations, including some governments, throughout the world. 

These are some of the key issues on which I hope our discussions will focus.