The threat of climate change and global warming, fueled by relentless commercialization and excessive consumption, has turned into a fighting ground for both policymakers and concerned citizens. The coming decade is set to determine not only a collective response to reducing carbon emissions, but the entire future direction for international development and the global justice movement.
A big breakthrough to tackle the world’s environmental and
economic crises is now beyond the reach of the Rio+20 Summit. But it can
still be a success if it reaffirms old commitments and launches new
processes to strengthen institutions and to initiate new goals and
action plans, says Martin Khor.
In the run-up to the Earth Summit in June, a united voice of small farmers, landless peasants, indigenous peoples
and migrants decidedly oppose the commercialization of
the earth, our territories, water, seeds, food, nature, and human life. Peasant agriculture now!, say Via Campesina.
A Nobel laureate, a Swedish environmentalist’s idea, the “doughnut”
concept, Scandinavia’s sense of social capital, measuring the quality of
life, and valuing the oceans are just some of the things trending in
the run-up to the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development due to be held on 20-22 June 2012. By IRIN.
The
co-option of the term green economy to mean commodifying and
marketising nature is in danger of dominating
the Rio+20 summit at the expense of some of the really positive policies
being proposed. This is why the real discussions will be taking place at the People's summit, explains Hannah Griffiths.
The fixing of a temperature target and of a global emissions
reduction goal must be done within a framework for the
equitable sharing of the atmospheric space and the development space. The sharing of climate change mitigation efforts is a critical
piece of the puzzle, says Martin Khor.
"We struggle for a radical change of the current model of production
and consumption, strengthening our right to expand with alternative
models based on the various realities experienced by the peoples, truly
democratic, respecting collective and human rights and in harmony with
nature and social and environmental justice."
As the international community looks for a successor to the Millennium Development Goals, which will expire in 2015, is the idea of Sustainable Development Goals - merging the divergent tracks of development and the environment - our best hope of ending poverty and saving the Earth?
