How about One Planet Living for Rio+20?

18.05.11 Back in the UK

As we left New York on Saturday morning we were under the impression that member states had agreed new UN policies which would raise the standards of sustainability in mining, transport, waste and chemicals and introduce a ten year framework of programmes for sustainable consumption and production (SCP).

We are pleased with what we managed to achieve in New York. After several side events, press briefings and lots of meetings in the Vienna cafe and corridors we have really got people interested in implementing the bioregional and one planet living approach to sustainable consumption and production. So much so, that on Friday two of our UN contacts had said we should now apply for one planet living to become part of the UN’s ten year framework of programmes on SCP. If accepted, this would bring UN legitimacy and engagement in this practical and equitable approach and would enable us to work especially with the least developed countries.  Representatives from ten countries from both developed and developing nations told us that they want to look into the idea of bringing one planet living principles into their national plans and we will now follow up with them. 

What had actually happened at the UN was that at 3am on Saturday morning, as member states continued to talk about “the means of implementation” that is, the money; Arab states, G77 and China re-opened discussions about the text as well. In particular they didn’t like the idea of green economy and felt the previously agreed alternative wording was ill defined. By 9am on Saturday half the delegates had left and the meeting was not quorate. Chairman Borbely therefore had to close CSD-19 without reaching an agreement. He said that the text as it was could serve as the basis for consensus on other sustainable development work.

This was the last big meeting on sustainable development before Rio+20 and as one delegate noted “What happened at CSD-19 might serve as a wake-up call for those involved in the Rio+20 process.”

One of the two themes of Rio+20 is the “green economy” a term which is disliked by the developing countries, who see it as green capitalism and not sustainability. According to the various reports, delegates are starting to say this term should be replaced by SCP for Rio+20. You can see what is coming…of course, we would suggest “one planet living”. It’s all about creating a future where we live happy, healthy lives within our fair share of the world’s resources – wherever we live in the world - and leaving space for wildlife and wilderness.  We found that every delegate that we spoke to was fascinated to see where their country comes on Global Footprint Network’s ecological and carbon footprint of nations chart which we included in our handout. They all get the idea of rich countries becoming more resource efficient and citizens of poorer countries being able to meet their needs, meaning they may need to increase consumption. One planet living is a big hit with people from any country which comes below the globally available biocapacity or “one planet living ” line, which is most of them.

Switzerland and Germany have been actively advocating in the plenaries that nations develop roadmaps for a green economy. The Swiss delegates told us that they had drawn on our “principles for a green economy” report which included one planet living and which we wrote with Stakeholder Forum and Earth Charter and handed out at the Rio+20 Prepcom in March.  They said they’d really like it if other countries developed roadmaps too and we agreed to go to Switzerland to talk about it.  Taking a one planet living approach to roadmaps for every country would make sure that the crucial issue of equity is addressed. It would make it more about meeting citizen’s needs and for developed countries a selling point is becoming more resilient to rising resource costs.   We will pass on the idea to those who could act on it and keep going. Even if it seems that once again, nations can’t agree to take collective action, as Brice Lalonde, co-organiser of Rio+20 told us in March “we will take the willing and get started”.

Sue Riddlestone, Director, BioRegional