As president of IUCN-The World Conservation Union, I was asked by the United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, to be part of the panel which identifies issues and ways to enhance commitment for sustainable development. Our fundamental task is to obtain political support on a global scale for the environmental policies that will be discussed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
Ten years after the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro (June 1992) and 30 years after the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm (June 1972), the world’s governments and a wide range of other stakeholders in sustainable development are gathering in Johannesburg at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD).
WSSD is an occasion to assess progress since Rio, an opportunity to reassess the importance of sustainable development in a globalised world, and an excellent chance for governments, industry and civil society to reconfirm their commitment to putting Rio’s sustainable development ideals into practice.
Rio is remembered as the coming of age of the environment movement. The event was attended by the great majority of the world’s heads of state, who agreed that the environment had “arrived”, and was an essential pillar of sustainable development. The conventions on biodiversity and on climate change signed at Rio were of enormous significance, and Agenda 21 offered a full menu of the actions that needed to be taken to achieve sustainable development.
Ten years later, progress is promising in some areas, but disappointing in others. The global economy has been restructured, remarkable new knowledge about genetics has been applied in many fields, and the revolution in information and communications technology has reached all corners of the world. On the other hand, while global wealth has increased, the gap between rich and poor has grown, and nearly three billion people – half the world’s population – are living on less than two dollars a day.
The institutions that address environment and development continue to be weak and fragmented. The Rio conventions are moving towards implementation, but at a pace that does not reduce greenhouse gases or slow biodiversity loss. Agenda 21 has spawned a myriad of individual initiatives, mostly at the local and national levels, but it has not become the blueprint for concerted global action that its framers hoped it would be. And despite the Global Environment Facility, funding to address environmental priorities remains a fraction of the minimal amount needed to reverse the tide of poverty and of global environmental degradation. Why have we not seen more progress?
While Rio succeeded in erecting the environment as a central pillar of development, alongside the economic pillar, it gave insufficient attention to the third pillar: social equity. It thus was only a partial solution, especially since the “Rio bargain” – environmental progress in exchange for increased funding for development and greater access to Northern markets for developing country products – has not been fulfilled.
We have learned since Rio that the pursuit of economic growth does not on its own lead to improvements in social equity or environmental welfare. Indeed, the problems caused by a dominant focus on economic growth will undermine not only the growth itself, but also the legitimacy of the institutions for global economic management.
On the other hand, the challenge of sustainable development is not something that can be achieved by action taken solely within the environment sector. It follows that sustainable development depends on building productive partnerships among all the key players in economic policy, social development and environmental management.
All major recent advances in public policy have been the fruit of collaboration between industry, civil society and government. That will be increasingly true in the future. We should base our actions on the common efforts of all three sectors, and not depend on government to act on our behalf.
However, it has also become clear that effective institutions governing international life are essential to sustainable development. Governance models should rest on the principles of transparency and openness; stakeholder participation in decision-making; and accountability for economic, social and environmental performance.
Sustainable development is the only acceptable goal for humanity. The desirable alternative to a world characterised by increasing conflict, injustice and environmental destruction is a world characterised by economic dynamism, social equity and environmental stability. IUCN believes that the success of sustainable development will depend on our joint ability to identify, negotiate and manage trade-offs between the economic, social and environmental pillars. This requires a clear acknowledgement of the role of ecosystems in sustaining human livelihoods, developing effective governance at the international, national and local levels, and finding new approaches, commitments and partnerships for financing sustainable development.
WSSD is an important opportunity to take the decisions that will shift the development process into sustainable channels. IUCN has mobilised our broad global constituency in support of .