Right now we are all participating in a ‘global movement for generational change’, and with simultaneous People’s Summit and Rio+Social, we are all part of a global conversation, underlining the importance of awareness and action.
Since last week #RioPlus20 and #FutureWeWant are trending worldwide on Twitter, there is a lot of interest and a lot of voices. #RioPlusSocial is addressing this social media boom. Tune in to my twitter roll for updates on various issues at the summit.
In sum, as the world stands tackling the prevalent environmental challenges and facing the threat to our resources and survival, it is crucial that the policy makers attend to the problem from all standpoints and with the same extremity.
The three pillars of sustainable development are often addressed separately, and according to the following priority: economic, social, environmental – but for the sustainable development agenda to work, they have to be confronted under the same accord, simultaneously.
Key areas that require urgent attention include access to water, ensuring food security and sustainable agriculture rest on the awareness and knowledge of global policies. Improving international coordination on the path of sustainable development will organically help build a green economy.
The recent failures of Copenhagen, Cancun and Durban summits to reach consensus on policies and mechanisms regarding climate change, economic outlook, and social progress are poor precedents.
This time, the meeting is intended not only to show political commitment and representation on the number of issues, but to encourage progress and implement an agenda of actions.
For example, a dozen or so big international companies have pledged to join the UN Global Compact in committing to improve water-management practices. Their mass production and product innovation and supply practices are putting a strain on natural resources around the world. They acknowledged that their operations cause problems for the supply chain due to the local water uses and the unavailability of freshwater in some regions, and they agreed to introduce new solutions to ensure a positive impact on communities. Among them are Royal Dutch Shell, Bayer AG, Levi Strauss, Coca-Cola, Dow Chemical Co., and Nestle SA, all water companies that – directly or indirectly - rely on water.
The Rio+ 20 outcome document, the Zero Draft, is expected to deliver a new framework that will emphasize the rationing of natural resources, their equal and needs-based distribution in order to improve health, welfare and justice to all the world citizens. It should aspire to bridge the time between now and 2015, the target for Millennium Development Goals, after which the international agenda must turn to a formulated set of sustainable development goals as the future framework.
The general objective is to work towards one coordinated progress for the post-2015 agenda and see more country-based, country-driven, country-owned goals, which will also be a bit more nuanced than they are today.
Hello and thank you for this article. So-called environmentally induced migration is multi-level problem. According to Essam El-Hinnawi definition form 1985 environmental refugees as those people who have been forced to leave their traditional habitat, temporarily or permanently, because of a marked environmental disruption (natural or triggered by people) that jeopardised their existence and/or seriously affected the quality of their life. The fundamental distinction between `environmental migrants` and `environmental refugees` is a standpoint of contemporsry studies in EDPs.
According to Bogumil Terminski it seems reasonable to distinguish the general category of environmental migrants from the more specific (subordinate to it) category of environmental refugees.
Environmental migrants, therefore, are persons making a short-lived, cyclical, or longerterm change of residence, of a voluntary or forced character, due to specific environmental factors. Environmental refugees form a specific type of environmental migrant.
Environmental refugees, therefore, are persons compelled to spontaneous, short-lived, cyclical, or longer-term changes of residence due to sudden or gradually worsening changes in environmental factors important to their living, which may be of either a short-term or an irreversible character.
According to Norman Myers environmental refugees are “people who can no longer gain a secure livelihood in their homelands because of drought, soil erosion, desertification, deforestation and other environmental problems, together with associated problems of population pressures and profound poverty”.
what do you think? so much criticism overshadowed what was actually done..
I heard and participated in this and it will be interesting to see the results of the “poll”.