Brussels, 08 February 2012
- EurActiv - EU Environment
Commissioner Janez Potočnik has vowed
that the EU will push for firm international commitments on
sustainable growth at the upcoming Rio +
20 conference.
Potočnik said the EU's own environmental standards offer a
global model for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, better resource
efficiency and improving the sustainability of agriculture.
Saying Europe has "the duty and the responsibility" to take the
lead at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in June, the
commissioner called on countries to strive for binding milestones
rather than general goals.
"We are trying to work hard to ensure that
we will obtain concrete results and I can safely say that a day
will not pass by in the coming months where the Rio outcome will
not be discussed in our contacts with international
partners." EU Environment Commissioner
Janez Potočnik
On 30 January, the UN's Global Sustainability Panel released
draft recommendations for the Rio meeting, calling sustainable
development a way to reduce poverty while energising anaemic
economies through technology investment and resource
efficiency.
But there are doubts about how much will come of the lengthy
recommendations made in the 'Resilient People, Resilient Planet'
report and how ambitious leaders meeting in Rio will be to make
commitments when many are grappling with economic woes at home.
Potočnik's remarks came during a meeting on sustainable
development at the European Economic and Social Committee, an
advisory body for EU policymakers in Brussels.
He called for setting milestones on sustainability, saying the
EU is "not just speaking from the podium."
"We have placed moving to a resource efficient, low-carbon
economy at the core of our economic strategy, and as a way out of
the current financial crisis towards sustainable growth," he
said.
Felix Dodds, executive director of the
London-based Stakeholder Forum, told the
European Economic and Social Committee conference yesterday (7
February): "To succeed, Rio will need to put more money on the
table to fund the move towards an economy based on sustainable
development."
EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard, who was one of 22
member of the UN's high-level Global Sustainability Panel, told EurActiv
in an interview last week that climate "is a threat multiplier in
many developing countries."
"[W]hen you have still more people, wanting still more
commodities, demanding still more food, still more energy, still
more water, and on top of that as an overarching challenge, you
also have climate change, then you really have the recipe for a lot
more problems if you just continue business as usual instead of
rethinking your growth model."
World leaders will be asked to negotiate a new agreement
to protect oceans, approve an annual state of the planet report,
set up a major world agency for the environment, and appoint a
global "ombudsperson", or high commissioner, for future
generations, according to pre-Rio +20 planning
documents.
Carbon Confusion: What's Next for Climate Policy?
With no significant successor to the Kyoto Protocol in sight and
a lack of coordinated climate policies in North America, what can
be expected in the future for compliance and pre-compliance
schemes, national and sub-national frameworks, and regulatory
approaches for managing greenhouse gas emissions? At GLOBE 2012
in Vancouver March 14-16, 2012 policy experts and climate and
energy leaders from around the world will discuss what's
coming next in this update on climate policy.
Confirmed Participants:
Velma McColl, Principal, Earnscliffe Strategy
Group, Canada (Moderator)
Pierre Arcand, Minister of the Environment,
Province of Québec, Canada
Henry Derwent, President & CEO,
International Emissions Trading Association (IETA),
Switzerland
Gina McCarthy, Assistant Administrator, Office
of Air and Radiation, US Environmental Protection Agency,
USA