GA RegionalUN Conference on

Sustainable DevelopmentBy: Emma Bunting and D’Andra Brown

Topic: Earth Summit 2012Allows participating countries a chance to:

renew their commitment to sustainabilitydiscuss issues regarding sustainability as a global

community

Three major objectives:maintaining political commitment to sustainable

developmentassessing progress toward internationally agreed-

upon commitments new and emerging challenges

Background Stockholm Declaration: “The protection and

improvement of the human environment is a major issue which affects the well-being of peoples and economic development throughout the world; it is the urgent desire of the peoples of the whole world and the duty of all Governments.”

20 years later: United Nations Conference on Environment and Development was held in June 1992.

Topic: Earth Summit 2012

Two themes:green economy in the context of poverty

education and sustainable development institutional framework for sustainable

development

Current SituationA Green Economy in the Context of Sustainable

Development

Given the food and economic crises of recent years, a new sense of urgency has been assigned to consideration of the role the economy plays in advancement toward sustainable development.

Various views on how to achieve Green economy Green Growth: holds that economic development can

continue while we bear in mind the need to protect the environment and natural resources.

De-Growth: holds that economic growth and sustainable development are mutually exclusive.

Climate Change Adaptation

Management of anticipated climate changes:sea level rises prolonged drought increased severe weather eventsoverall global warming

o Climate adaptation plans (CAPs) are agreed upon. These are reports that focus on listing climate change effects on a particular region or locale and set forth strategies for reducing the consequences of these changes and future effects that may occur.

International ActionThe Kyoto Protocol

an international commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which encouraged greenhouse gas emission reductions.

This organization laid the groundwork for transitioning toward a greener economy.

However, many nations either have not ratified these protocols or do not follow the provisions they lay out. In many instances, they feel they are constrained from doing so due to financial reasons.

Latin America Those with strong economies and rich natural resources such as Brazil are more

inclined to adopt green policies, while more impoverished nations such Nicaragua or Haiti simply do not have the ability or desire to focus on green initiatives.

Poverty continues to be one of the region's main challenges. Latin America is the most unequal region in the world.

However, in 2010, the World Bank forecasted that the region’s economy would grow 4.5 percent that year, so the opportunity for development of all nations is prevalent.

The new agreement sets two priorities for collaboration: climate change and opportunities for achieving low carbon development; and promoting a new state-market-society balance for equality and environmental sustainability in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The issues that both organizations will work on in the first area include, in particular, fiscal policy, innovation and renewable resources and energy efficiency. In the second area, the focus will be on promoting fiscal and social covenants to achieve equality in the region.

Regional and international cooperation is critical to identify policies that will benefit both the most prosperous nations and the most impoverished.

Terms and Concepts Stockholm Declaration: a document including several principles and

recommendations that was adopted during the Stockholm Convention; it identifies the global environment as an international concern.

Green Economy: a widely debated term that refers to an ecologically sensitive financial system.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP): the total value of all goods and services produced by a country. Green Growth: economic growth that occurs in a way that not only protects but also propagates the environment.

Climate Change Adaptation: proactive and continuous actions taken to mitigate and prevent effects of climate change.

Soil exhaustion: the result of intensive farming, which depletes the soil of its nutrients and renders it infertile; meaning that the land is now useless for farming.

Biomass: a term used to encompass all organic matter that can be used as a fuel source, typically by burning it.