{"id":45721,"date":"2012-08-05T00:52:57","date_gmt":"2012-08-05T00:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=45721"},"modified":"2012-08-05T00:52:57","modified_gmt":"2012-08-05T00:52:57","slug":"green-economy-empty-rhetoric-or-pathway-to-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=45721","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Green economy\u2019: empty rhetoric or pathway to future?"},"content":{"rendered":"

World leaders and some 40,000 people converged on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June in the hope of charting a path towards a better, more sustainable future for everyone that many are calling the \u201cgreen economy.\u201d Underlining the urgency, Sha Zukang, secretary-general of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, said more than a year before the summit began: \u201cIf we continue on our current path, we will bequeath material and environ\u00admental poverty, not prosperity, to our children and grandchildren.\u201d\u00a0 (Photo:\u00a0Solar panels in Mali – More African countries are moving towards use of clean energy sources. Photograph: Panos \/ Giacomo Pirozzi)<\/em><\/p>\n

However, sharp tensions between countries of the North and South and between civil society and governments \u2014 amidst general global economic uncertainty \u2014resulted in vague agreements that left few satisfied. \u201cIt could have been worse\u201d was a common sentiment at the conclusion of the Rio+20 summit.<\/p>\n

The summit ended up being \u201ca glass half-full, glass half-empty situation for Africa,\u201d said Donald Kaberuka, presi\u00addent of the African Development Bank (AfDB), on the final day in Rio. \u201cWe\u2019re making progress on thinking about the green economy, and especially the linkage between poverty alleviation and the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not something we do because the international community is asking us to do it,\u201d Mr. Kaberuka added. \u201cWe do it for Africa because we are closely linked to nature in terms of our livelihoods.\u201d<\/p>\n

Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), which has been a driving force in promoting the concept of a green economy, was upbeat. \u201cWorld leaders and governments have today agreed that a transition to a green economy \u2014 backed by strong social provisions \u2014 offers a key pathway towards a sustainable 21st century,\u201d he said at the conclusion.<\/p>\n

But South Africa\u2019s Kumi Naidoo, the executive director of Greenpeace International, strongly disagreed. \u201cAll we have witnessed is three days of empty rhetoric and greenwash from world leaders,\u201d he said. \u201cGovernments have failed to produce the historic deal we need to address the perfect storm of crises: of equity, ecology and economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The formal outcome of the Rio+20 summit was a document, \u201cThe Future We Want,\u201d that reaffirmed what had been agreed to years ago but offered little new. Instead, world leaders simply agreed to more talks to strengthen UN institutions, examine whether to provide developing countries with finance and technology, and estab\u00adlish new sustainable development goals.<\/p>\n

Going into the summit, developing countries called on the industrial\u00adized nations to provide additional financing of more than $30 billion annually over 2013\u201317 \u2014 and $100 billion per year after that \u2014 to help them green their economies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are hoping that the green economy will bear fruit when it comes to combating desertification, poverty, and protecting the environment,\u201d said Adam Mohammed Nour of Sudan\u2019s Ministry of Environment, Forests and Physical Development. The promise of the green economy, he said, \u201ccan only be achieved if there are sufficient resources available for that purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya agreed, arguing that an international sustainable development financing strategy would \u201cfacilitate the mobilization of financial and other resources to assist developing countries to make the transition to the green economy more effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

After developed countries failed to agree to new funds \u2014 only to future talks on financing \u2014 AfDB President Kaberuka expressed disappointment. The Rio summit, he said, did not produce any concrete timetables or establish any mechanism to monitor and verify progress towards greening economies.<\/p>\n

Some African ministers pointed to the North\u2019s unsustainable patterns of production and consumption. \u201cCountries must acquit themselves of their obliga\u00adtions and consume in a responsible manner,\u201d said Raymond Tshibanda, foreign minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, referring to the fact that industrialized countries\u2019 carbon emissions and water and resource use have a far higher impact on the planet than those of African nations.<\/p>\n

But beyond this general consensus, the summit did not produce a clear understanding of what the term \u201cgreen economy\u201d means. Many in Africa and in civil society groups remain suspicious that it is simply business as usual or may represent new ways to restrict trade and development.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe green economy is a black box right now,\u201d said Davinder Lamba, director of the Mazingira Institute, a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Nairobi, Kenya. \u201cWe don\u2019t know what will make it tick.\u201d More \u201ctransparency and agency\u201d will be required to overcome the reluctance and opposition to creating green economies, Mr. Lamba added. By \u201cagency,\u201d he means that those at the bottom, the poor and poorest countries, must have a role in shaping what green economies are and how they will work.<\/p>\n

The Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee (IPACC), an NGO network of more than 155 orga\u00adnizations in 22 African countries, said it was encouraged by the commitment in \u201cThe Future We Want\u201d document to improving the livelihoods of the poor and to valuing their needs and concerns.<\/p>\n

According to Nigel Crawhall, director of the IPACC Secretariat, many destruc\u00adtive projects have been justified on the basis that they increased economic growth, while ignoring their impacts on local communities and their land. Such projects now need to be \u201creassessed, adjusted or just cancelled, as they create poverty rather than alleviate it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Some came to Rio looking for practical steps that could boost economic develop\u00adment and job creation. \u201cWe were hoping Rio would produce concrete solutions on sustainable development. In the East African region our priority is safeguarding nature, on which our economies depend,\u201d said Jesca Eriyo, deputy secretary-general of the secretariat of the East African Community, a regional intergovern\u00admental group of Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania. \u201cWe expected solutions that will help our women and our economies to grow because most of our people are poor and our economies still performing below expectation,\u201d said Eriyo.<\/p>\n

However, she added, it is not clear what a green economy would mean for those active in nature-dependant sectors like agriculture, fisheries and tourism. If it brings innovation and industrialization, resulting in jobs in new industries, it could be an opportunity, she conceded.<\/p>\n

Charles Mbella Moki, the mayor of Buea, a town in southwestern Cameroon, thought it would take time for the signifi\u00adcance of the Rio summit to become clear. \u201cIt is yet to be seen in the years ahead if this get-together will have a positive impact on humanity.<\/p>\n

By Stephen Leahy, <\/em>United Nations Africa Renewal<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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