Green Grabbing our Future: Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development

http://www.foodfirst.org/en/Rio+20+issues

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Released by the Institute for Food and Development Policy, June 19, 2012
By Eric Holt-Giménez, Agnes Walton and Mariagiulia Mariani

INTRODUCTION

The “Green Economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication” or The UN’s Rio+20, is being held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from June 20-22, 2012. The conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) meeting marks the 20th anniversary of Rio’s first “Earth Summit,” the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), as well as the 10th anniversary of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), held in Johannesburg, South Africa. For two days Rio will host heads of state and high-level officials from 190 countries as they attempt to negotiate a global roadmap for sustainable development. Over 50,000 participants from the private sector and civil society are meeting in side events and parallel events in and near the conference.

In the shadow of the global economic crisis, this year’s conference will focus on the “Green Economy.” Enshrined in the 2011 United Nations Environment Program’s report “Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication,” the concept aims to usher in global economic growth by putting market values on environmental services and environmentally-friendly production and consumption.

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