Chair,
We need to transition to SD. All our decisions in the last 20 years repeat this common
objective. Commitments have been made under different frameworks.
However, we have to collectively assume that the world is not better now than 20
years ago. Inequality is raising, so as environmental challenges, and the economy
today is far from being a driver for development, for saying the less..
Being a bit provocative chair, I'm not even sure we would be able to agree on the
contents of the Rio Declaration or the JPOI today...
This speaks a lot about the challenge we face regarding implementation.
Complementing what others have said, we consider that three additional issues need
to be addressed in order to ensure we are able to move forward on implementation:
The first one relates to awareness and social pressure: in our view it is
fundamental that the public (and in the case of trade unions, I would say workers) are
aware of what is at stake when we think about moving towards a sustainable society,
its challenges and its opportunities. This is in our view the only way for ensuring
governments will feel sufficient pressure from their people to move forward.
My second issue is the role major groups play on implementation, and in
particular our role as trade unions. As the panellists have mentioned, without a
mobilised and organised civil society, small innovative actions will not be scaled up.
As we have explained this morning, unions are engaged in ambitious actions to raise
awareness among workers on environmental issues, as well as on traditional union
ones (such as labour rights, poverty eradication, social justice). All over the world, we
are organising trainings, lobbying for ambitious legislation, partnering with nongovernmental
organisations and youth, progressive business, academia, and the list
goes on. We know that workers and their unions can make a difference in moving
towards a more sustainable world, and we are making efforts to make this potential a
reality. And with these actions, chair, we are implementing Rio and WSSD
commitments. The initial acknowledgement of the importance of civil society coming
from Rio should take a new shape, and become a reality in international decision
making.
Finally, chair, I would like to address my third issue, which is the quality of CSD
decisions. Today, we see other processes, including some related to RIO or WSSD
decisions, which attract support and action by governments and civil society. Why do
we see little motion on CSD decisions?
In addition to several reasons addressed by Felix and Tom, our sense is that if we
want to progress on implementation, decisions coming from CSD need to be
perceived as fair, sufficiently negotiated, owned and ultimately able to address the
challenge we are facing. Ambition and innovative ideas need to come back both in
terms of process (by including civil society as equal partners in the decision-making
process) and in content (taking decisions that go beyond the ambitions stated in Rio
and JPOI, and with clear means of implementation for the old commitments).We
honestly don't think the last years of negotiations qualify with this principles; and as a
consequence of this they do not sufficiently motivate civil society to go and call for
their implementation with their national governments.
We look forward for achieving progress in Rio+20, Chair, but we think ambition on
commitments and implementation can also start now, and should not wait for a new
Summit.
