| Ministerial Dialogue on Green Economy and Inclusive Growth |
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Ahead of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), to be held in Rio de Janeiro in 2012, a two-day Ministerial Dialogue on the Green Economy and Inclusive Growth took place in Delhi. The session saw the discussion around the concept of green economy in the context of poverty eradication and sustainable development that resulted in a 7 points common agenda. Several issues, such as technology transfer and finance, remained however unresolved, with developed and developing countries holding different approaches. The Delhi dialogue agreed on the following seven points: “1/ Rio is a sustainable development conference and all parts of government and civil societies should have a stake. 2/ all countries, developed and developing, must stand to benefit from the agreement signed at Rio+20. 3/ At Rio+20, governments must reaffirm the Rio principles, including the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR) and devise a plan of action to accelerate implementation of long standing commitments. 4/ the Rio+20 outcome must strengthen integration of the three pillars of sustainable developments. 5/ the outcome must be people-centred and inclusive, taking into account above all the needs of the most vulnerable. 6/ the ambition of the actions agreed at Rio must match the scale of the challenges we face. Half measures will not do. 7/ Financing, science and technology and capacity building will be critical to a successful Rio+20 outcome. During the meeting of officials and ministers from 57 different countries, participants also discussed the creation of a sustainable development council (SDC) to monitor the implementation of a green economy, to be focused on sustainable development and poverty eradication. To this end, several country representatives called for the introduction of fixed targets and deliverables, to which all countries should commit if the green economy is to be implemented on a global scale. The proposal was criticised by participants from developing countries to pursue a “one size fits all” agenda, neglecting country specific conditions in the implementation of a green economy. According to India’s Environment and Forests Minister Jayanthi Natrajan, developed countries should grant developing countries enough policy space to define sustainable development policies according to “national priorities and conditions”. Natrajan further called upon governments to define the concept of green economy “in the context of its meaningfulness for overarching goal of equity and poverty eradication” and warned against misusing the concept to protect the country against foreign commercial interests. The meeting saw the discussion of several contentious issues upon which no common stance could be agreed. Those debates included the transfer of green technologies as a means to foster sustainable development. ”The challenge of scale up of cleaner energy solutions gets compounded by limited access to green technologies at affordable cost. These continue to remain major concerns for India” Natrajan stressed. “Right now, the developed countries are only trying to find a market for their green technologies, without talking about transfer of technology” added a developing country official. In his address to the meeting’s audience, European Commissioner for Environment Janez Potočnik emphasised the need to consider the interplay of the economy, natural resources, and decent living conditions and jobs in setting the agenda for a green economy. Addressing the situation of smallholder farmers in particular, Potočnik stressed that by investing in biodiversity, “the ability to produce nutritious food to feed growing populations” could be advanced and the social development of rural communities actively supported. “Rio+20 should be regarded as the opportunity that everybody in our mutually interdependent world has to seize, in order to secure global and worldwide commitment to sustainable development”, the commissioner concluded. Participants agreed on seven broad points, please refer to the final declaration of Mr. Sha Zukang: Rio+20 (pdf) Sources:  |
