Post date: Jun 23, 2012 10:36:18 AM
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL (JUNE 22, 2012) (REUTERS) - Global leaders ended a U.N. development summit on Friday (June 22) with an agreement wideley regarded as lacking.
Rio+20 ends with weak agreement text, disappointing critics.
Nearly a hundred heads of state and government met over the past three days to set sustainable development goals, a United Nations drive built around economic growth, the environment, and social inclusion.
But a lack of consensus over those goals led to an agreement that even some signatories say lacks commitment, specifics, and measurable targets.
As a result, many ecologists, activists, and business leaders now believe that progress on environmental issues must be made locally with the private sector, and without the help of international deals.
Angry environmentalists expressed their dissatisfaction in a news conference after the text's approval.
Oxfam's international policy and campaigns director, Stephen Hale, said the summit brought failed to produce any results for developing a greener world.
"For us, Rio+20 will go down as a hoax summit. Leaders came, they talked and they failed to act. It has been a profound abdication of responsibility. We elect our leaders to lead, and they have showed in this conference that they are paralyzed by inertia. They are often warped by vested interests and unable to join the dots. There was an announcement last night by the U.N. Secretary General, on a zero hunger challenge. That, outside the formal process contains a lot of ambition, which we did not see in the formal outcome. We fought for many commitments to be in the text, we fought for a long time over the months and in the run up to this summit, on strong commitments on tackling the food crisis. None of that came in the official process," he said.
Antonio Tujan, Ibon group's international director, said developed countries had escaped from their duty of delivering money to finance green projects.
"Despite the economic crisis, there is actually enough money. (We want) The OECD countries, the northern countries, the rich countries, to live up to their commitments of 0.7 percent of GDP for their aid. There is enough money to contribute to climate finance. But because there is a crisis, the debate on whether to put that money to help save the environment, to help prevent climate crisis, to help the poor countries in the world is now being overtaken by corporations who say that the money is better off used to catalyze investments," he said.
Some heads of state and government stayed away, given the global economic slowdown, worsening debt woes in Europe and continued violence in the Middle East.
But leaders praised their accomplishments at the summit's closing ceremony.
Rio+20 Secretary General Sha Zukang praised world leaders for having paved way for more sustainable growth.
"You laid out the groundbreaking guidelines for applying green economy policies as a useful tool in advancing sustainable development and ending poverty. You agreed to strengthen the environmental pillar of sustainable development by enhancing UNEP. You decided that we need a high-level political forum to address the three pillars of sustainable development in an integrated way," he said.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called on world leaders to meet their promises.
"Rio+20 has given us a solid platform to build on and it has given us the tools to build with. The war starts now. I count on your leadership and strong commitment. Thank you very much," he said.
Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff said the sustainable development goals would also help to end poverty.
"A historic step was taken in the direction of a world that is more fair, equitable and prosperous so that poverty may be eradicated and the environment protected. Brazil is proud of having organised and presided the most participative and democratic conference, where we gave space to the several views and proposals," she said.
The summit, known as Rio+20, was never expected to generate the sort of landmark accords signed at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, which included a treaty on biodiversity and agreements that led to the creation of the Kyoto protocol on greenhouse emissions.