presentation to UN General Assembly on Rio+20 on May 22nd 2012

1. The role of the General
Assembly in supporting
Rio+20
Felix Dodds
Stakeholder Forum
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2. President Mbeki (2006)
“Precisely because of the absence of a global
partnership for development, the Doha
Development Round has almost collapsed. we have
not implemented the Monterrey Consensus on
Financing for Development, thus making it difficult
for the majority of the developing countries,
especially those in Africa, to achieve the
Millennium Development Goals, and have reduced
the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation to an
insignificant and perhaps forgotten piece of
paper.”
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3. International Framework for Sustainable Development
Sustainable National Level Important
Development
Governance Implementation SD Issues
www.earthsummit2012.org
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4. Sustainable Development
Governance
Lessons learnt from the first twenty years
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5. The first seven years - 1
• 1994 CSD: called for the development of
an “effective legally binding instruments
concerning the Prior Informed Consent
(PIC) procedure on the importation of
chemicals”
• 1995 CSD: established the United
Nations Inter-government Panel on
Forests
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6. The first seven years - 2
• 1996 CSD: set out the requirements for
the establishment of the institutional
arrangements for the implementation of
the Global Programme of Action for the
Protection of the Marine Environment
from Land-based Activities
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7. The first seven years - 3
• 1997 UNGASS: called for by the year 2002, the
formulation and elaboration of national
strategies for sustainable development, the
establishment of the UN Intergovernmental
Forum on Forests (IFF) for three years (1997-
2000), and the establishment of multi-
stakeholder dialogues with governments
within the UN CSD
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8. The first seven years - 4
• 1998 CSD: called on UNCTAD, UNEP and UN
DESA to help develop a vulnerability index for
the quantitative and analytical work on the
vulnerability of Small Island Developing
States and the establishment of a review of
voluntary initiatives within industry.
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9. The first seven years - 5
• 1999 CSD: established an expansion of the
United Nations guidelines on consumer
protection to include sustainable consumption.
It also established an open-ended informal
consultation processes on oceans and seas
under the UN General Assembly.
• 2000 CSD: set out the terms of reference for a
new permanent body – the United Nations
Forum on Forests.
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10. Institutional Framework on Sustainable Development -
• There is a need to establish a high level
body to deal with sustainable
development issues at the UN –
• This SD body will have a set of functions
that will be the same irrespective of what
this body will look like or where this body
will be situated in the UN hierarchy.
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11. Functions of a new SD body
• Ensuring implementation by a periodic review
mechanism for increased implementation and
cooperation;
• •Monitor progress in promoting, facilitating and
financing, as appropriate, access to and transfer
of environmentally and sustainably sound
technologies
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12. Functions of a new SD body
• To follow up commitments made in Agenda
21, JPOI, Rio+20, BPOA, MSI and other
relevant outcomes of major UN summits and
Conferences
• To review and monitor regularly progress
towards the United Nations target of 0.7 per
cent of the gross national income (GNI) of
developed countries for official development
assistance (ODA).
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13. Functions of a new SD body
• To review new and emerging issues as well as
monitor the implementation of sustainable
development goals;
• • It should be universal, and ensure system-
wide participation and coordination including
of MEAs, UN Agencies funds and programmes,
and other relevant multilateral financial and
trade institutions, as appropriate, such as the
IFIs and the WTO,
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14. Functions of a new SD body
• To enhance the science--‐policy interface and
progress tracking – to be achieved by
institutionalizing a regular sustainable
development assessment on that global scale;
• • To strengthening inter‐agency coordination
through a sustainable development
subcommittee of the Chief Executives Board
(CEB) of UN bodies to follow--‐up and provide
advice to the Secretary General on
coordination;
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15. IFSD and stakeholders
• Rio and the CSD brought stakeholders to
the UN in an interactive manner never
practiced before. This has inspired other
UN institutions to involve all stakeholders
in processes at all levels.
• The UN counts on stakeholders to carry
out many of its decisions.
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16. Functions of a new SD body
• A twenty first century governance
structure utilizing some of the
approaches in the Committee on
Food Security and UN AIDs where
Major Groups and other stakeholders
are part of the governance structure -
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17. National Implementation
For sustainable development
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18. National Level Implementation
• National Councils of Sustainable
Development/ Economic and Social Councils
– Report to the new level body – with a day of
debate on their reports
– Parliaments should instigate an annual debate on
implementation of Rio+20
– Sub national and local government should set up
equivalent councils on SD and report annually to
their national bodies
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19. An important Issue
Building a more sustainable, safe and secure world
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20. 20

21. Missing MEA
A proposed Chapter 41 of Agenda 21 was put
forward in 1991 by the UN Centre for Transnational
Corporations. The Chapter called, ‘Transnational
Corporations and Sustainable Development’ had
many good suggestions on:
• Global Corporate Environmental Management
• Risk and Hazard Minimization
• Environmentally Sounder Consumer Patterns
• Full Cost Environmental Accounting
• Environmental Conventions, Standards and
Guidelines
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22. Corporate Sustainability reporting-
Para 24
• What: A Global framework for corporate sustainability
reporting will harmonize sustainability reporting and
support implementation of policies and policy tools,
so corporations publish this information as part of their
reporting cycle.
• Who: Listed and large corporations
• How: “Report or explain” basis. Flexibility: regulation,
stock exchange listing rules.
• Why?:
- Voluntary mechanisms worked up to a point, we need
faster progress
- 130 different versions: not cost-efficient for companies

23. Supporters
• Private sector: AVIVA (coalition of investors),
HSBC, the World Business Council for
Sustainably Development, and most recently
Dow Chemical
• Civil Society: Oxfam, ITUC, Greenpeace, Vitae
Civilis, Brazilian NGO Forum,
• UN: Global Sustainability Panel, UNSG: “Let us
work together to forge a global policy framework for companies
publicly disclosing information on sustainability performance – and
explaining why if companies do not.”February 16, 2012 New York

24. Stakeholder Forum web sites for Rio+20
www.earthsummit2012.org
www.csradialogue2012.org
www.globaltransition2012.org
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