Australia’s Intervention delivered in the 2nd Rio+20
Intersessional meeting on 15 December 2011
Thank you Mr Co-Chair.
Australia associates itself with the statement made this morning by the
distinguished representative of New Zealand on behalf of the Pacific
Island Forum countries.
At Rio+20 Australia believes we must take the opportunity to address
sustainable development challenges looking forward to the next twenty
years and beyond.
Australia is committed to working with other countries to achieve longterm
sustainable development globally, and an important part of our
commitment is to assist the poorest and most vulnerable meet the
challenges of the three integrated aspects of sustainable development.
That is why Australia is doubling its aid budget by 2016.
As evident from the compilation document, we share many priorities with
other countries, civil society and stakeholders. So I will only briefly
address a few of the questions and highlight Australia’s view on critical
areas where progress is needed at Rio next year, in terms of specific
outcomes.
The outcomes for Rio+20 must reflect the intrinsic link between the
objective and themes of the Conference and recognise that renewed
political commitment to sustainable development is fundamental to the
success of the Conference.
Australia would like the outcomes document from Rio+20 to reflect a set
of clear, practical outcomes, including actions and responsibilities that
will address the key challenges of sustainable development. Australia
supports a short and focused outcomes document which includes a
high-level political declaration. The outcomes document should not be
duplicative of past Summit outcome documents. It should address the
objective and themes of the conference in a clear and succinct manner,
proposing short and focused lists of high-level outcomes and means of
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implementation under relevant agreed priorities. The zero draft should
reflect those areas of common ground shared between Member States.
Our political declaration must be ambitious and capable of galvanizing
political commitment as we did 20 years ago in Rio. Australia is
committed to working closely in the coming months to set the stage for a
common sustainable future for the next 20 years and beyond.
In terms of substantive outcomes I would like to highlight the following.
Australia supports the Colombian-Guatemalan-Peruvian proposal to
develop Sustainable Development Goals and we welcome the
constructive engagement of many countries on this proposal, through
their submissions to the compilation document and at informal meetings.
Australia will continue to work with countries to develop this idea as a
collective construction, keeping in mind the strong need to ensure
coherence with the Millennium Development Goals framework. We see
these sustainable development goals as cross cutting and bridging the
two themes of Rio.
As well as we see the institutional framework for sustainable
development as key to supporting and driving sustainable development
efforts into the future. Existing institutions need to be reformed to
integrate our considerations of the economic, social and environmental
dimensions of sustainable development. This should involve
strengthening UNEP and developing a system-wide strategy for the
environment in the UN, the transformation of the Commission on
Sustainable Development into a significantly more effective organisation
and consideration of how ECOSOC can better perform its role as the
primary high-level decision-making body for all three aspects of
sustainable development.
In terms of critical areas we believe Rio+20 should urgently address the
global challenge of food and water security, including through increased
funding for agricultural and rural development and research to
sustainably boost production; liberalisation of trade and the elimination
of trade-distorting agricultural subsidies and market barriers; and
improving water access and water use efficiency at a national level.
Rio+20 outcomes should improve biodiversity conservation. Despite our
efforts since the 1992 Summit, biodiversity is in decline both in Australia
and globally. Rio+20 needs to emphasize the integrated management of
biodiversity at landscape and seascape scale, using market-based
mechanisms where appropriate; and better recognise indigenous,
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traditional and community-based approaches to conservation and
sustainable use of biodiversity.
Australia is also committed to promoting sustainable mining practices
and improving environmental management of mining activities. When
managed properly, mining offers the opportunity to promote broad-based
economic development, reduce poverty and help countries meet the
Millennium Development Goals.
We believe Rio+20 should agree to develop credible frameworks for
measuring sustainability in a manner which goes beyond the scope of
traditional measures of progress, and as part of our contribution to
Rio+20 Australia will share our expertise in developing a set of
sustainability indicators which reflect priority sustainability issues of
relevance at both regional and national levels.
And finally, concerning oceans and the ‘blue economy’ Australia
welcomes countries’ references to the responsible management of our
oceans – the ‘blue economy’ – in their submissions and the words today
of many, including the PIF, Monaco and others. And we thank the
Principality of Monaco for the Oceans workshop they hosted a few
weeks ago.
For island nations such as Australia, preserving the rich biodiversity of
our oceans is one of our highest priorities. For Small Island Developing
States, the resilience of the oceans, fisheries and marine environment is
crucial to the livelihoods of millions of people. Healthy oceans are also
vital to some of the earth’s most important systems and services, and
thereby, our sustainable development. The ‘blue economy’ should be a
priority for us all and is about deriving sustainable, direct and equitable
benefits from the oceans and sustainable livelihoods.
Australia will be strongly supporting oceans and ‘blue economy’
outcomes, with a focus on promoting regional frameworks that deliver
practical action to progress sustainable development as we have seen in
the Coral Triangle Initiative. Oceans outcomes are important to us all
and should no longer be forgotten or treated as the sole domain of one
sector. Oceans are the lifeblood of our planet and need our attention at
Rio+20.
Thank you Mr Co-Chair.
