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Rio+20 agenda sets a framework for the global sustainability debate, says Brazilian Minister for the Environment
Criado em 04/06/13 14h51
e atualizado em 06/06/13 10h20
Por Vinícius Lisboa
Edição:Juliana Andrade / Lícia Marques
Fonte:Agência Brasil
Rio de Janeiro – The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20 was a major milestone, says Brazil's Minister for the Environment, Izabella Teixeira: "A year after the Rio+20 Conference, there is a global agenda modeled on the conference's legacy," she declared. "The Rio+20 agenda has become a benchmark for all international agreements on sustainable development. What it basically does is bring the issues of mankind, poverty eradication and new economic models into the center of the debate. As a result we are able to deal with sustainability from the perspective of global development, not just as a matter of national development."
She went on to say that Rio+ 20 and Rio 92 can be seen as distinct phases of the sustainability debate. "Rio 92 was a kind of arrival point, where an array of binding agreements, including the Climate Convention and the Convention on Biological Diversity, were worked out. Rio+20 has been like a point of departure, laying the groundwork for new negotiations and new premises," she declared.
The minister was the opening speaker for the Environment Week that took place in the Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro at the beginning of this month. The program included seminars such as “Sustainable Development Geopolitics” (“A Geopolítica do Desenvolvimento Sustentável”), bringing together researchers and representatives from the government, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). André Corrêa do Lago, director for the Environment and Special Affairs at Brazil's Foreign Ministry, pointed out that all countries have domestic groups that are not quite in line with the environmental agenda, sometimes actively lobbying against it, believing that it represents a threat to their interests.
The head of the Regional Office for Latin America & the Caribbean (ROLAC) at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Margarita Astrálaga, and the President of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Yolanda Kakabadse, advocate that investments should be made to work out new economic models. Fernando Fernandez, Unilever's CEO in Brazil, argued that large businesses need to align their environment-related practices and frameworks to achieve results including enhancing the offer of sustainable raw materials, which are often supplied by small businesses struggling to deliver on diversified demands.
Edition: Juliana Andrade / Lícia Marques
Translation: Mayra Borges / Allen Bennett
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