Rio+20: “A failure of epic proportions”?
Published on by Claudia Casarotto, Innovations for Poverty Action - Deputy Country Director - Kenya
The Rio+20 Summit is over and it has gained the nickname of "Rio Minus 20," or "Rio Plus 20 Minus 40".
The final statement (of 283 paragraphs!) seems to leave most of the participants of the Rio summit unhappy: the text uses 60 times "reaffirm" and only 5 times "decide" and it has been defined by Mr. Naidoo, the executive director of Greenpeace International, the "longest suicide note in history". The outcome of the meeting appears to lack vision and to bluntly "reaffirm that what we did 20 years ago is now considered a success", as Mr Khor of the U.N. Committee on Development Policy.
The summit decided to establish "a universal intergovernmental high level political forum" to replace another U.N. commission. It also made a clear move against the institution of a global fund to support development and a shift towards a green economy while it strongly promoted public-private partnerships and private investments.
Do the conclusion of the Summit meet our expectations? Is Mr. Naidoo right calling it "A failure of epic proportions"? Or was this the best possible outcome?
Check the final report http://j.mp/M7smnv and share your view!