[South Bulletin 63 Article]

A successful outcome from Rio would include:

·        A reaffirmation of the original Rio principles and commitments adopted 20 years ago in the original Rio Summit.  At the least this would mean that the political leaders and especially the developed countries are not retreating or backtracking from what they agreed all these years ago.  The most important Rio principle that needs reaffirming is the common but differentiated responsibilities, which means that the developed countries agree they have to do much more in terms of reducing pollution and emissions and in their use of natural resources, and that they have to provide finance and technology to developing countries, so that every country has the means to move towards sustainable development pathways.

·  A recognition that the crises in environment and economy are even more serious today than 20 years ago, and adoption of new commitments by the political leaders that are adequate enough to tackle these crises in a systemic way. 

·  An agreement to significantly strengthen the institutions for addressing sustainable development in a serious and adequate manner.  The present UN Commission on Sustainable Development showed early promise but turned out to be too weak as it only meets 2 to 3 weeks in a year, and it has a small secretariat.  It has to be radically reformed or else transformed into a new Council or Forum on Sustainable Development which can meet the challenges thrown up by the global crises in the three dimensions – environmental, economic and social.  Meetings must be scheduled regularly, and not just for a few weeks, and the secretariat must become a strong organisation with more staff and dynamism.   The Rio summit should adopt a decision to have this strong institution and launch a process to determine the details. The UNEP meanwhile should be given a mandate to strengthen its organization and operations, with more resources, so that it can work more effectively to build a strong environment pillar.

·  There must be clear commitments to support developing countries to take on more responsibilities in addressing environment, economic and social problems.  Thus the summit cannot backtrack on the “means of implementation.”   There should be a re-commitment to new and additional financial resources for sustainable development, and to technology transfer on concessional and preferential terms, as was committed 20 years ago in Rio and on many other occasions since then. 

·  The Summit should launch a process to decide on and flesh out sustainable development goals. However the goals should also be backed up by concrete action plans, with details on the financing and technology transfer aspects to implement these plans. The SDGs should interface properly with the post-2015 MDGs process. Meanwhile there should be a strong implementation plan for the actions recommended in the section on sectoral issues in the outcome document. 

Martin Khor is the Executive Director of the South Centre.