Saulo Rodrigues Filho's Presentation at IPC-IG's 2012 Seminar Series on March 9th, 2012.

1. Rio+20, Brazil and the BRICS
An Assessment of Performance towards Sustainability
Saulo Rodrigues-Filho, PhD
IPC-UNDP Meeting, Brasília, 9th of March 2012
Center for Sustainable Development – CDS
University of Brasília – UnB

2. Rio+20, Brazil and the BRICS
The proposal to hold a new Conference of the United Nations for
Sustainable Development was introduced by the former President of
Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2007, in the opening speech at the 62nd
General Assembly of the United Nations.
Considering the global crisis on its multiple dimensions, the dominant
background during the Conference should be seen as an opportunity to
share commitments for the adoption of new solutions, more creative and
consistent with modern times.
Center for Sustainable Development – CDS
University of Brasília – UnB

3. Rio+20, Brazil and the BRICS
Because of their position as emerging countries, BRICS are assuming a
major role in international agreements. Some crucial factors for this role are
their economic growth with a better income distribution and their efforts to
establish and compliance with environmental goals.
According to the official Positioning Statement sent by the Brazilian
Government to the UN Secretary on 1st of November 2011, some of the
goals of sustainable development should be associated with:
Center for Sustainable Development – CDS
University of Brasília – UnB

4. Rio+20, Brazil and the BRICS
· Eradication of extreme poverty
· Food Security and nutrition
· Access to suitable jobs (socially fair and environmentally sound)
· Access to appropriate sources of energy
· Equity – intra and inter-generations, among and within countries
· Gender and Women Empowerment
· Micro-entrepreneurship and microfinance
· Innovation for sustainability
· Access to adequate sources of water
· Balance the ecological footprint of society to the planet’s carrying capacity
Center for Sustainable Development – CDS
University of Brasília – UnB

5. Rio+20, Brazil and the BRICS
Institutional Dimension of International Governance
The creation of a permanent coordination at a high UN level aggregating
all international institutions that deal with development initiatives would
have a considerable political impact and effectiveness.
Brazil’s position supports that Rio +20 seeks launching the reform of
ECOSOC for turning this Council a central forum for sustainable
development issues, dealing with equal weight their environmental,
economic and social dimensions.
Center for Sustainable Development – CDS
University of Brasília – UnB

6. Rio+20, Brazil and the BRICS
Analysis of strategic aspects for development in emerging countries
XXI Century has began with an important inflection on the historically
decreasing values of natural resources, as mirrored in the prices of
commodities through the XX century. Since 2003, we are likely entering a
new age of valuation of raw material and energy, which is arguably caused
by both high growth rates in populous emerging countries and the
increasing notion of a finite world, as reflected in evidence of a human-
driven climate change, an overshooting ecological footprint and the ever
increasing loss of biodiversity and other natural assets.
Center for Sustainable Development – CDS
University of Brasília – UnB

7. Rio+20, Brazil and the BRICS
If this assumption is valid, it is very likely to be followed by the revision of
an important mainstream economic thought, according to which losses of
natural capital can ever be compensated by technological innovation. This
assumption seems no longer to be valid.
Market alone has never showed itself to be able to incorporate an
appropriate valuation for some important aspects associated with human
wellbeing, such as social inequality, environmental services, human rights,
less useful living species and ethical principles.
Center for Sustainable Development – CDS
University of Brasília – UnB

8. Rio+20, Brazil and the BRICS
Due to its inherent inability to deal with those important aspects of
development, as far as life and future is concerned, markets require a
proper regulation from states and international organizations. The roots of
this inability might also help explaining the recent and long-lasting financial
crisis.
Following the principle of an infinite world, market-oriented forces have
now managed to include green economy as the main directive for Rio+20.
Green economy is all and only about efficiency, in the use and management
of material and energy, which strongly depends on the intensity of capital
and technological development.
Center for Sustainable Development – CDS
University of Brasília – UnB

9. CompasSus – Compass of Sustainability
CompasSus is not an assessment toll in itself, but rather a conceptual
framework, an attempt to highlight different operational concepts of
sustainability behind assessment systems.
It is based on the assumption that sustainability assessment models
should go beyond the assessment of land use changes.
Center for Sustainable Development – CDS
University of Brasília – UnB

10. CompasSus – Compass of Sustainability
Most of the sustainability assessment models disregard material flow
accounts together with its associated natural capital consumption,
leading to a limited notion of sustainability.
It is argued that consideration of import/export of materials, energy
and wastes is needed to achieve an integrated and fair sustainability
assessment.
Intragenerational equity - Sustainability can not be decoupled from
the global perspective, as well as it is not achievable at the expenses
of externalities abroad (social and environmental justice).
Center for Sustainable Development – CDS
University of Brasília – UnB

11. CompasSus – Compass of Sustainability
Since the 1990´s, sustainability has been one of the most addressed
goals for the design of policies, programs, plans and projects in
different sectors of governments, business and non-governmental
organizations (conceptual ambiguousness leading to vulgarization)
Aiming at the current need for assessing sustainability performance
of territorial development processes, the objective of this article is to
explore strengths of different assessment models, such as:
- Ecological Footprint (Wackernagel and Rees, 1996);
-Barometer of Sustainability, or Wellbeing Index (Prescott-Allen,
2001).
Center for Sustainable Development – CDS
University of Brasília – UnB

12. CompasSus – Compass of Sustainability
Some Important International Initiatives on Aggregation of SDI
- Millennium Development Goals (UNSD, 2005)
- Ecological Footprint (Wackernagel and Rees, 1996)
- Well-being Assessment or Barometer of Sustainability
(Prescott-Allen, 1999)
- ESI - Environmental Sustainability Index (Yale/Columbia,
2005)
- ISEW – Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (Daly and
Cobb, 1989)
- The Dashboard of Sustainability (IISD, 2002).
Center for Sustainable Development – CDS
University of Brasília – UnB

13. CompasSus – Compass of Sustainability
The ecological economic literature on weak and strong sustainability
has explored some important values and interpretations affecting a
desired operational concept of sustainability (Daly, 1997; Bartelmus,
1999; Bartelmus, 2004).
The concept of critical natural capital, for example, has a pivotal role
for defining strong sustainability. The remaining question is:
How to define the sub-set of natural capital, or thresholds, beyond
which man-made substitutes are not achievable?
Center for Sustainable Development – CDS
University of Brasília – UnB

14. CompasSus – Compass of Sustainability
Until this question is not properly answered, for addressing trade-offs
between global and local/regional approaches, the CompasSus
conceptual framework proposes a hemispheric representation for
assessing sustainability, whereas:
- the left hemisphere reflects a weak sustainability approach, with
focus on local/regional impacts, here represented by the Barometer of
Sustainability (composed of 70 indicators);
- the right hemisphere mirrors a strong sustainability focused on
global impacts and its implications, by considering earth´s carrying
capacity an important component of sustainability, represented by the
Ecological Footprint (compose of one headline indicator).
Center for Sustainable Development – CDS
University of Brasília – UnB

15. CompasSus – Compass of Sustainability
Wellbeing, Footprint and Climate Change
It is argued that both models have their own limitations, while a
combination of both, together with a proxy of climate change
enhancement (one headline indicator), provides a more
comprehensive assessment.
It is argued that both tolls represent complementary perspectives
of different operational concepts of sustainable development, namely
strong and weak sustainability.
Therefore, the proposed CompasSus Assessment consists of a
conceptual framework based on complementary perspectives of
sustainability, namely global and local/regional.
Center for Sustainable Development – CDS
University of Brasília – UnB

16. CompasSus – Compass of Sustainability
N
S(sust.)
Human
Ecosystem
N(non-sust.)

17. Barometer of Sustainability
The Barometer of Sustainability is a performance assessment designed to
measure human and ecosystem wellbeing, following two axes, one for each
dimension (Prescott-Allen, 2001).
Ecosystem Wellbeing Index (EWI)
Land. How well a country conserves the diversity of its natural land
ecosystems [4 indicators] and maintains the quality of the ecosystems that it
develops [1 indicator].
Water. River conversion by dams [2 indicators]. The water quality of
drainage basins [17 indicators]. Water withdrawal as a percentage of the
national supply from precipitation [1 indicator]. Inadequate data prevented
coverage of the sea.

18. Barometer of Sustainability
Ecosystem Wellbeing Index (EWI) – cont.
Air. Emissions of greenhouse gases and ozone depleting substances to the
global atmosphere [2 indicators]. The quality of city air [9 indicators].
Species and genes. How well a country conserves its wild species of
mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and higher plants [2 indicators], and
the variety of its domesticated livestock breeds [2 indicators].
Resource use. How much energy a country consumes [2 indicators]. The
demands its agriculture, fishing, and timber sectors place on resources [9
indicators].
Source: IUCN, 2005

19. Barometer of Sustainability
Human Wellbeing Index (HWI)
Health and population. How long people may expect to live in good health
[1 indicator]. The stability of family size [1 indicator].
Wealth. How well needs are met for income, food, safe water, and sanitation
[6 indicators]. The size and condition of the national economy, including
inflation, unemployment, and the debt burden [8 indicators].
Knowledge and culture. Education (primary, secondary, and tertiary school
enrollment rates) and communication (accessibility and reliability of the
telephone system and use of the Internet) [6 indicators]. Lack of a suitable
indicator prevented coverage of culture.
Source: IUCN, 2005

20. Barometer of Sustainability
Human Wellbeing Index (HWI) – cont.
Community. Freedom and governance (political rights, civil liberties, press
freedom, and corruption) [4 indicators]. Peacefulness (military expenditure
and deaths from armed conflicts and terrorism) [2 indicators]. Violent crime
rates [4 indicators].
Equity. Household equity: the difference in income share between the richest
and poorest fifths of the population [1 indicator]. Gender equity: disparities
between males and females in income, education, and parliamentary decision-
making [3 indicators].
Source: IUCN, 2005

21. Ecological Footprint
The Ecological Footprint is an assessment tool of the carrying
capacity of natural systems in relation to the consumption of a
given population or country.
The assessment is based on land units and assumes that each
human activity uses resources and produces waste flows that
can be converted to a biologically productive area necessary to
provide these functions (Wackernagel and Rees, 1996;
Wackernagel et al, 1997).
The main advantage of this toll is the clear statement of natural
limits in relation to the type of economic growth, which are
either absent or left to stakeholders definition in other tolls.

22. Ecological Footprint by country
It shows the implications of, for instance, 85% of the global
energy suply being consumed by just 25% of the world
population
Source: WWF (2006)

23. CompasSus – Compass of Sustainability

24. CompasSus – Compass of Sustainability

25. CompasSus – Compass of Sustainability
Conclusions
CompasSus proposes an approach that can in principle be
applied to any sustainability assessment tool of land use
changes, since its operational development is still running and
requires further research efforts.
A modelling toll is as good as the decisions it gives rise, if any.
Sustainability means provision of food to my children
(Brasilian small-farmer).
Thank you!
Email: saulofilhocds@gmail.com