Providence, RI - Natural Awakenings

Shaping the
Future We Want
Global Commitments to Catalyze Change
“We don’t
need another
plan of action or more
treaties; what we need
are people that will begin to implement
the commitments and meet the goals
that have already been created and established,”
explains Jacob Scherr, director
of global strategy and advocacy for
the Natural Resources Defense Council
(NRDC), about the new thinking that
drove this year’s Earth Summit in Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil.
The June conference brought
together international heads of state,
business leaders, nonprofits and activists
to prioritize and strategize sustainable
development. Unlike the United
Nations’ annual climate change conferences,
which led to the Kyoto Protocol
in 1997—a legally binding treaty that
by Brita Belli
set targets for greenhouse gas emissions
the United States refused to sign—the
United Nations Conference on Sustainable
Development is held once every
20 years. The theme of Rio+20 was
simple and direct: The Future We Want.
Moving away from political
posturing and endless negotiating, the
meet-up asked businesses, governments
and charities to publicly declare their
specific commitments and solicited
the public’s ideas for realizing sustainability,
all aligned with the priorities
and opportunities of the 21st century.
“With growing populations depleting
resources, how do we keep increasing
and ensuring prosperity while we
are already using more than we have?”
queries U.N. spokeswoman Pragati
Pascale. “It’s a conundrum.”
22 Rhode Island Edition RINaturalAwakenings.com
Sustainable development, as
defined by the U.N., includes fighting
poverty, social inclusion (including
advancing the status of women) and
protecting the environment. Building
a sustainable future for the planet, say
those involved, means addressing all
three simultaneously. It demands the
kind of real, immediate action so evident
at Rio+20.
Real Results
By the end of the Rio conference, more
than 700 voluntarily secured commitments,
valued at more than half a trillion
dollars, were earmarked to address everything
from protecting forests and reducing
ocean pollution to building rapid
transit bus systems and increasing the
number of women entrepreneurs in the
green economy. The NRDC launched
CloudOfCommitments.org to track and
publicize new pledges and make them
easily searchable by region or category.
Some commitments are breathtaking
in scope:
n International development banks
have pledged $175 billion to boost
sustainable transportation in developing
countries;
n Bank of America promised $50 billion
over 10 years to finance energy
efficiency, renewable energy sources
and energy access;
n The World Bank committed $16
billion to boost clean energy, access
to electricity and cookstoves in
developing nations;
n The New Partnership for Africa’s
Development promised to achieve
energy access for at least 60 percent
of Africa’s population by 2040;
n The European Bank offered $8
billion by 2015 to support energy
efficiency projects in Eastern Europe
and Central Asia;
n Microsoft pledged to be carbon neutral
across all its operations by the
end of 2013;
n The United States together with the
Consumer Goods Forum (which
represents more than 600 retail and
manufacturing companies) committed
to achieve zero net deforestation
in their supply chains by 2020.
“The real action, the real energy,
was the 21st-century aspect [of
Rio+20],” advises Scherr. “I call it