Rio de Janeiro: un murales
| Nazioni Unite | Europa | Italia | Fondazione per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile | ICLEI |
I CONTRIBUTI DELL'ICLEI, Local Governments for Sustainability
Rio de Janeiro, 4-6 giugno 2012
I DOCUMENTI DEL NEGOZIATO
La prima versione "Zero Draft" del documento finale di Rio+20
Rioplustwenties "Rio+20 Participation Guide - An
introduction for children
and youth"Risoluzione ONU 64/236 del 24 dicembre
2009
La Roadmap ONU delle NGO verso Rio+20 del 2011
La posizione dell'UNCTAD: "The road to Rio+20 for a development-led green economy" del 2011
Rapporto di sintesi del primo Intersessional Meeting CSD del gennaio 2011
La proposta del Presidente del Brasile
"Global Environmental Outlook"
Il Sommario per gli operatori politici del febbraio 2012
Le 21 criticità per l'ambiente nel ventunesimo secolo del febbraio 2012
Keeping Track of our Changing Environment: From Rio to Rio+20
Documento del Consiglio Ambiente del 9 Marzo 2012: "Rio+20: Pathways to a sustainable future"
Il Contributo Europeo alla UNCSD per la preparazione dello Zero Draft del Documento finale di Rio+20
Il documento del Consiglio Europeo dei Ministri dell'Ambiente del 10 ottobre 2011
La risoluzione del Parlamento Europeo del 29 settembre
La Mozione del Comitato ENVI del Parlamento Europeo per una posizione unitaria su Rio+20
La posizione della Commissione Europea del giugno 2011
ITALIA
Il Piano d'Azione Ambientale per lo sviluppo sostenibile
RIO+20 sul WEB
Local governments are probably the main actor in implementing sustainable development. Any regional, national or state regulation has to be implemented at the local level. Besides, half of the world population lives in cities. Local governments have prescriptive and financial powers, they have means of implementation, they have democratic legitimacy, they can start a lot of policies bottom up in a world where it is difficult to have 190 countries to agree on a top down regulation.
We could say that green urban economy is part of the implementation of sustainable development in cities. It addresses the relationship between the metabolism of the city and the environment. Local Agenda 21, a mandate stemming from the first Rio Conference, inspired thousands of cities worldwide to act for sustainable development. What can we expect from Rio+20? As for Agenda 21, we could reprint it, assess its legacy, update it, if needed, and understand why some of the recommendations have not been implemented. But we could also build a coalition of cities, businesses, universities and citizens moving together towards sustainable development. (Brice Lalonde, ICLEI Executive Coordinator for Rio+ 20)
We early generations of Homo urbanis are truly conflicted about our relationship with the city. We want the city’s opportunities and its ‘buzz’ and vibrancy, but we also want some kind of bygone pastoral quality of life. In the effort to have both, we’ve created perhaps the most unsustainable kind of geography imaginable, both economically and environmentally: low density, highly capital-intensive, car-dependent suburban sprawl. The city I would like to raise my family in is one where we can be part of a neighborhood community that designs and uses urban space in customised ways that give us access, via foot or bicycle, to both nature and urban buzz and human diversity. It is also a place where our economic opportunities are accessed via convenient transit.
The 1992 Earth Summit process provided us with a platform for developing, testing, and scaling today’s practices of urban sustainability planning. Now we have to apply those practices to transform urban geographies into truly functioning urban ecosystems, producing their own energy, nutrient, and materials. That’s a huge ambition, but the only ambition worthy of the challenge of impending global economic collapse in the face of declining natural ecosystem services. While a globalised economy utilises natural resources world-wide, negative impacts are often dealt with at the local level. At the same time, national governments appear to compete with each other rather than agreeing on rules to protect global common goods.
Perhaps the best thing that could happen at Rio+20 is that national governments will agree that their current beggar-thy-neighbour strategies are not in their selfinterest. In a world of globalised interdependencies, where a failure in one major country or urban region, due to environmental crisis or resource shortages, ripples through the global economy, we need to grow and not fight over the ecosystem services ‘pie’. The only way to do that is to grow ecosystem productivity, both in nature and in our cities.
Why can’t we just wait until natural resources will have become so expensive that reusing or replacing them will be our only choice? That could be a very nasty future of hoarding, conflict and deprivation, but it could come to that if we turn to elections for the solution, considering the resistance of governments and many industries in the last 20 years. The manipulation and misinformation of public opinion on critical challenges, like climate change, suggests that elections are a compromised democratic vehicle. There are other types, including the kind of community-based urbanism I have described, where place-based social communities re-build the energy, nutrient, and materials balances of their cities. When we first engaged in the Earth Summit process in 1990, many thought that Local Agenda 21 and urban climate action were strange ideas. What we need in 2012 is even stranger ideas. (Jeb Brugmann, Founding Secretary General of ICLEI)
ICLEI submission for Rio+20
Contribution to the Zero Draft of the Rio+20 outcome document
31 October 2011
ICLEI ha prodotto in data 31 0ttobre 2011 il suo contributo per il Bureau Rio+20, alla vigilia della scadenza fissata dall'ONU per la collezione dei contributi a livello mondiale. L'incipit del documento dell'ICLEI recita così:
"We all know we currently live beyond the carrying capacity of the planet. In 2050, about 9 billion people will live on this planet – how can we ensure at least basic, decent livelihoods for all with more equity and social justice while climatic changes will have taken effect, scarcity will have led to significant price increases in water, food mineral oil, natural gas, and many materials? ICLEI’s vision is not to merely look at the status quo and make incremental improvements to it, but rather to consider the systemic changes we need to make now in order to ensure sustained human life on earth. That is the crucial context of ICLEI’s input towards, at and beyond Rio+20.
In ICLEI’s view, the world does not need another declaration. If Rio+20 is to be a worthwhile multilateral conference justifying the enormous financial and human resources invested in it, Heads of States and Governments have to be personally involved in jointly deciding upon and presenting concrete actions". (> leggi l'intero documento)
TORNA SU
Local governments on the road to Rio+20
27 - 28 October 2011
Twenty years have passed since Hans Mönninghoff, Vice-Mayor of the City of Hannover (Germany), visited the NGO Forum at the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro 1992. It’s hard to believe local governments were not officially represented at the famous Rio Earth Summit.
Looking back, Hans Mönninghoff remembers the strong emotional experience of meeting hundreds of people that were equally committed to saving the planet from environmental degradation and poverty. “This exchange with so many other, similar-minded people from cities, NGOs and other initiatives from all over the world was inspiring. We felt that everyone could learn from each other, perhaps the idea of sharing ‘best practice’ was born there”.
At Rio 1992, the international community adopted ICLEI’s initiative for a Local Agenda 21, a success story written by thousands of cities in the years afterwards, including Hannover. Looking at Europe, the Local Agenda 21 mandate from Rio was the reference point for the Sustainable Cities & Towns Campaign founded in Aalborg (Denmark) in 1994, which now has more than 2,700 participants. “It was the massive movement of local governments in the 1990’s to start local dialogue processes on sustainable development that made the Rio messages become part of the political mainstream in European cities today”, says Hans.
He is proud of what Hannover has achieved since 1992 to become a much more sustainable city. In the new neighbourhood of Kronsberg, Hannover is demonstrating some of the key features of a ‘sustainable city’. Such pilot projects change the standards of the whole city. “Now any new municipal building in Hannover has to comply with passive house standards. Who would have expected this even just 10 years ago?” Now, 19 years later, the UN has started preparations for the Conference on Sustainable Development 2012, which takes place again in Rio de Janeiro from 4 - 6 June 2012. Will it achieve such results a second time?
Two main themes have been identified for the Rio+20 Conference: Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development and Green Economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication. These are not particularly ... attention-grabbing headings to guide the international community in defining the next steps towards a global development of a safe and healthy life for all that simultaneously respects the limits of global ecosystems.
Institutional framework for sustainable development. Since Rio 1992, economic production and consumption has become more and more organised on a global scale, in spite of the fact that there is nothing even resembling a global government to set common social standards or standards for the use and protection of natural resources. However, national governments are torn between agreeing on such standards and pursuing their own economic interests. At the same time, production and consumption of goods and services, and social and environmental conditions are a daily reality in the cities, towns and villages worldwide - and local governments, together with their local communities, have no choice but to manage them.
According to the UN, “An effective institutional framework is key to the implementation of sustainable development at all levels.” In order to strengthen the existing institutional framework, “options for strengthening the environmental pillar of sustainable development and achieving effective international environmental governance” have to be opened at the Rio+20 Conference.
Green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication. The title of the second key theme of Rio+20 reflects the discussions between industrialised countries, developing countries and NGOs about a balanced consideration of environmental protection, social development and equal access to markets when promoting enhanced standards for the world’s economy. The European Union sees the Green Economy theme much in line with its own Europe 2020 Strategy and hopes that, “UNCSD will agree on a UN Green Economy Roadmap which clarifies the steps needed at national and international level.” According to the EU, this roadmap could include a menu of actions, a timeline for their implementation, identify key actors and set targets and appropriate indicators.
Local Governments at Rio+20. As the Local Authority Major Group Organising Partner at the UNCSD, ICLEI participates in the official UN preparatory process and links local governments from around the world to the global discussions. The main aim is to ensure that the voice of cities is heard in the lead up to Rio+20 and that local governments are recognised as key actors contributing to sustainable development.
To support this goal, ICLEI is currently involved in a number of initiatives that will lay the foundations for a local government contribution to the process leading up to, and beyond, the Rio+20 Conference:
q Local Sustainability 2012, a global study documenting the variety of local processes for sustainability that have emerged across the world, analysing their impacts and proposing new ways forward for local governments.
q Local innovations for sustainability, a collection of case studies presenting the wealth and effectiveness of local sustainability actions.
q The ICLEI World Congress in Belo Horizonte (Brazil) in May 2012, bringing together local leaders from across the globe to discuss local governments’ contribution to the Rio+20 Conference.
q The online Local2012 Counter to show the huge number of cities and towns worldwide that are engaged in local sustainability processes – whether they are still called Local Agenda 21 or not. CLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability
Looking beyond Rio+20 Back in Kronsberg, the spring sun is setting and the children have left with their skateboards. “Environmental issues and sustainable development have become an unquestioned priority of local policy-making in Hannover and in many other local governments”, says Hans Mönninghoff, “even in times of tough financial constraints.” If this is true, then these cities can serve as a good model for national governments and the UN in 2012. Continued commitment, financial resources and shared responsibilities will be needed from all levels and sectors if the challenges of the future, such as creating carbon neutral cities, are to be met. Hans is convinced that “we have to reinvent our daily lives, our urban fabric, our industries and infrastructure in our transition to the post-fossil society.” In December, Hannover will host the German Rio+20 conference of local initiatives, and Hans will once again discuss his experiences and ideas with hundreds of like-minded people - “It’s going to be extremely exciting!”
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