Rio+20 | Capacity Building workshop for Major Groups (late Jan 2012)

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FYI

- Info about Rio+20

- Useful links for information

- Projects / partners

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: “Tara DePorte” <tara@humanimpactsinstitute.org>
Date: Jan 27, 2012 1:12 AM
Subject: Re: [OWS Earth Summit] Yesterday&apos;s Major Groups capacity building workshop
To: <mobilizeus@googlegroups.com>
Cc: <ows-earth-summit@googlegroups.com>

Hello all,

 

Just to follow-up on the Stakeholders meeting with the US Delegation.  Alex White (from the Human Impacts Institute) and Molly Delano (from Global Kids) were able to attend that meeting.  The problem with those meetings is that they are emphatically “off the record”, so we are finding some difficulty in negotiating how to disseminate and report-back on some key issues covered there.  Alex and Molly:  would you be up for creating your own summary of what are some of your “lessons learned” from that meeting that wouldn’t interfere with our future participation?

 

Also,  in terms of the great links that Jim sent around:  I am planning on asking UN DESA if they will provide a stakeholder engagement training at the U.S./Canada Citizen’s Summit that we are coordinating with MobilizeUS! partners and others in March at Yale University.  So, hopefully this will be something that we can really develop as a “train the trainers” for the official engagement in the policy development process for Rio.

 

In terms of getting outside of the “official mechanisms”, this is where MobilizeUS! as a coalition can really get creative Nationally and in our community.  So, what are your ideas for common actions that we can do to really engage the U.S. populous in sustainability action in their communities and pressure on our governments for action?  Send your ideas to us!  We will be working to put together MyCity+20 event toolkits for MobilizeUS! partners to use between now and June, so we need your resources, ideas, and support!

 

Thanks and keep the updates and ideas coming!
Tara

 

On Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 11:59 AM, Hierald E. Kane-Osorto <hierald@gmail.com> wrote:

Greetings,

I am currently in NYC following the initial discussion on the zero draft document for Rio+20.  I wasn’t able to attend the forum on Tuesday in the morning but my understanding is that it focused on how civil society can contribute to the official process and the role of Major Stakeholders groups in providing input. There is a debriefing on Friday at 6:15PM for major stakeholders at the UN after the official sessions end.

Later that afternoon there was a session that was hosted by IBON International with very important input on the necessity for the Rio+20 process to be about a paradigm shift and the that it include a rights approach that was holistic.  What I found helpful about this discussion was that it was the global south playing an active role in defining the shortcomings of the current zero draft and providing important critical perspective in preparation for the official meetings that began yesterday.

Here are some links that might be helpful:
http://iboninternational.org/page/whats_new/124 (From Tuesday Afternoon Meeting)
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title2/sdc2012/sdc2012.120101.htm (One of the groups present in the afternoon on Tuesday)

Regarding participation I think it does go beyond the official mechanism I think it also should involve participation in debriefings held by the governments along with all the other processes civil society is involved in.  I found out at last minute but the US held a stakeholders meeting at the mission yesterday afternoon to get input on their current position on the zero draft. There was mention that they will organizing a meeting in DC in March or April sometime as well. Today there is an event at the New Economic Forum on the People’s Sustainability Treaties I sent an email earlier regarding this as well.

Hope this is helpful.

Best,
Hierald

On Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 7:27 AM, Jim Barton <smithmillcreek@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi All-
I’m not in Manhattan, so I’m trying to figure this out as best I can.

As far as I can make out, the input pathway for the world’s seven billion people into
the upcoming Rio plus 20 are two-fold:
1- their governments
2- participation in the “major groups” that are seen to encompass most/all of humanity:

Yesterday, there appears to have been a workshop on how to participate in the major group process.
http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?page=view&nr=330&type=12&menu=46&template=435 <http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?page=view&nr=330&type=12&menu=46&template=435>

There were a few presentations, the slideshows for which are online:
Coalition or division <http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/content/documents/639strandenaes.pdf>
24 Jan 2012
Presentation by Jan-Gustav Strandenaes, Stakeholder Forum
————————————————————————
Rio to Rio <http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/content/documents/642farookullah.pdf>
Presentation by Farooq Ullah, Head of Policy and Advocacy, Stakeholder Forum
————————————————————————
The process and framework <http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/content/documents/640process.pdf>
Presentation by Jan-Gustav Strandenaes, Stakeholder Forum
————————————————————————
The zero draft <http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/content/documents/641david.pdf>

Did anyone go to this workshop? Does it seem relevant to what we are doing?
Thanks!
– Jim
–
“This is what we are about: We plant the seeds that will one day grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.”
- Archbishop Oscar Romero

 

 

–
Tara DePorte
Executive Director and Founder
The Human Impacts Institute  www.HumanImpactsInstitute.org
NYC Climate Coalition www.NYCClimate.org
Tara@HumanImpactsInstitute.org
Phone +1 917 727 9761
skype: taradeporte

Adjunct Professor and Lecturer
Columbia University, NYC
The New School, NYC
Webster University, Leiden, The Netherlands
www.TaraDePorte.com/TeachingMainPage.html

Tara DePorte Art
www.TaraDePorte.com
_______________________________
Do LESS. Be more.

Tracking the World Bank at COP17

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A nice and easy to read article by a friend (keith brunner from GJEP) about how the World Bank and narrow-minded economists are getting more and more desperate with their drive to turn Mother Earth into an extension of the capitalist world economy – and ruin it as they go.

Highly recommended for people interested in climate change, so called "sustainable development" and the upcoming Rio+20 Earth Summit!

http://climate-connections.org/2012/01/16/tracking-the-world-bank-at-cop17/ (via Kjell Kühne) http://climate-connections.org/2012/01/16/tracking-the-world-bank-at-cop17/

Rio+20 Youth Space UNEP conferences in Nairobi 18-22 February

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Are you attending? =)
GMGSF.13
GCSS.XII/GMEF

= = = = =

From: Sara Svensson

Message from the UN Environment Programme:

It is our great pleasure to invite you to UNEP’s 13th Global Major Groups and Stakeholders Forum (GMGSF.13) to be held from 18-19 February 2012 and to the 12th Special Session of the UNEP Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum (GCSS.XII/GMEF), to be held from 20-22 February 2012, in Nairobi, Kenya.

The overarching theme of the GCSS.XII/GMEF will be “Environmental change: Global responses in 2012” and the ministerial consultations will focus on “Global environmental outlook in 2012” and “Rio+20 and beyond: responding to the challenges”.

Please register online and confirm your participation at http://www.unep.org/cso-sgb3/Login.aspx

For additional information regarding the GMGSF 13, please visit the following website: http://www.unep.org/civil-society/GlobalMajorGroupsStakeholdersForum/GMGSF13/tabid/55911/Default.aspx. Additional information on the GCSS-XII/GMEF will be made available at www.unep.org. Information for participants regarding hotel accommodation, medical requirements and visa regulations, together with registration forms, will be provided on the UNEP website.

News | Guardian.co.uk | Only a global binding climate agreement could unleash a wave of investment

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Ex-UN climate chief says business should get ready for low-carbon world

guardian.co.uk | Jan 5th 2012

Businesses should be putting plans in place this year to prepare for a low-carbon economy, having been given a strong signal from the latest climate change negotiations that governments are serious about tackling global warming, according to the former United Nations climate chief.

Yvo de Boer said the message from the Durban climate talks in December, which ended with a dramatic last-minute deal to forge a new legally binding climate agreement, was that businesses ought to press ahead with moves towards operating in a low-carbon world. He said that businesses should interpret the talks as a "clear signal that the international community is committed to taking the climate change agenda forward, that market-based mechanisms [such as carbon trading] will continue and that there will be clear reporting guidelines" on carbon dioxide emissions, which will affect companies.

De Boer, now special adviser on climate change to KPMG, was the architect of the Copenhagen climate summit of 2009, at which countries made voluntary commitments to cut their emissions by 2020. Many countries, green campaigners and businesses complained that the system of voluntary commitments did not provide the certainty needed to spur the development of a low-carbon economy across the globe.

The breakthrough at the Durban climate conference was that all countries, developed and developing, agreed to start work on a new worldwide agreement, to be signed in 2015, that would stipulate legally binding – not voluntary – emissions cuts to kick in from 2020.

De Boer told the Guardian that moves to create a global legally binding agreement were good for businesses. He said business leaders had stressed to him that they needed greater certainty from politicians, in order to make the right decisions to stay prosperous in the future. Only a global, legally binding agreement on the climate could provide the sort of guarantee that generates a wave of investment in greener technologies, and meaningful efforts to cut greenhouse gases. Such an agreement would also help to ensure there was a level playing field across in terms of business regulation – and this too would work to the advantage of companies, which could be reassured that their rivals were facing the same constraints.

He said that it was a "mistake" to think, as some people have argued, that a "bottom-up" approach – whereby countries and industry would make voluntary commitments to cut emissions – would be sufficient to reduce emissions by the drastic amounts needed in order to keep temperature rises within relatively safe levels.

His views are broadly shared by Lord (Nicholas) Stern, author of the landmark 2006 Stern review of the economics of climate change. Stern told the Guardian that the efforts of many businesses and nations so far to cut emissions would not have happened without the impetus given by the international negotiating process.

However, some close observers of the talks, including the UK’s former chief scientific adviser Sir David King, take an opposing view, arguing that the annual climate talks that have been running for nearly two decades have borne little fruit and that nations should focus instead on a series of voluntary, non-binding pledges and on encouraging industry to cut emissions.

Stern also warned that the current pledges on greenhouse gas emissions from governments around the world would not be sufficient to stave off dangerous climate change, and must be strengthened.The Durban agreement was snatched at the last minute after the talks, which were supposed to end at teatime on 9 December, carried on through two more nights into the early hours of Sunday morning. A last-ditch compromise among the European Union, India and China over the wording of how a new agreement should be described – the words "legally binding" were replaced by "an agreed outcome with legal force" – enabled the talks to end in consensus.

"Slowly but surely, like it or not, the world is moving forward on climate change, with business now able to seriously calculate the implications of a low- carbon economy," De Boer said. "The meeting in Durban was its usual roller coaster ride, ending with a surprise commitment to continue the Kyoto Protocol, along with a raft of other climate change agreements. While the outcome has signalled a breakthrough for a political consensus on climate change, the outcome for business is only just becoming clear."

He said the agreement at Durban to continue with the Kyoto protocol beyond 2012, when its current provisions expire, would also have a big effect on many companies. "Business can be confident that market-based mechanisms such as the clean development mechanism [under which carbon credits are issued and sold] will continue," he said.

The clean development mechanism has generated billions of dollars in investment in low-carbon technologies around the world since it came into force in 2005, but in the last two years the investment pipeline has all but dried up, because of the uncertainty surrounding the future of the Kyoto protocol.

De Boer said the "Durban platform", the name given to the deal reached there to negotiate a new legal agreement, showed that "an international agreement for global action on climate change is within our reach and should therefore be considered within every forward looking business strategy".

He said: "With a pinch of luck, by 2015 [when the new agreement should be signed] the current economic crisis will be behind us, creating a more benign climate for governments to make commitments the world needs in order to tackle climate change effectively and business needs to survive and prosper."

But he warned that the science of climate change was becoming clearer, making it more obvious that our current efforts to cut emissions have been insufficient, and that much more needs to be done. "Our concrete actions have not taken us anywhere near where we need to be to keep temperature rises below 2ºC [which scientists regard as the limit of safety]," he said.

De Boer stressed the key role for business in tackling global warming, for instance through investments geared to cutting emissions in the developing world. At Durban, countries agreed most of the terms by which money can start to be released under the "green climate fund", under which $100bn a year in financing should flow from the rich to the poor world by 2020. "Prior to the conference it was unclear what role business would play in the fund; the worry was that the private sector would be sidelined," he said. "Thankfully, Durban saw confirmation that the fund will have a facility to fund private sector initiatives. It will seek actively to promote business involvement and catalyse further public and private money."

De Boer said this should mean more public-private partnerships in developing nations working on green growth, which should create jobs, alleviate poverty and improve infrastructure as well as tackling climate change.

Original Page: http://gu.com/p/34fgv/tw

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