Throughout Tuesday night and yesterday morning, police outriders' sirens could be heard regularly from the streets below our apartment and at least 3 helicopters were patrolling the skies. The Heads of State were arriving and traffic chaos ensued.
The formal part of the Rio+20 conference was opened yesterday by Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon. In his opening remarks he stated that the text that's been sweated over for the last few days was now agreed. It’s called ‘The future we want’...
So what's going to change in the world at large? On the face of it, not very much. The text is disappointingly weak - in fact it appears to reflect none of the urgency or alarm at the global task ahead of us. In countless side events, presentations, demonstrations, e-petitions, and civil society gatherings, the urgent need to stop the destruction of the planet and to live more sustainably has been advocated by everyone from eminent Nobel prize winners to forest dwelling indigenous peoples.
Perhaps the most compelling demand for action came from Brittany Tilford, a 17 year old from New Zealand, who addressed the plenary session and, with spine chilling commentary, pointed out that the clock is ticking - tick - tick - tick - on her future and that of all those that follow. Click here to watch her speech - it's definitely worth it.
The response of the 190 or so countries has so far been, to put it mildly, underwhelming. The 283 paragraphs largely re-affirm existing commitments, with no sense of urgency. Even the words on stopping the destruction of rainforests are woolly. Our civil society advocates have summed it up perfectly by saying "you cannot have a document titled ‘the future we want’ without any mention of the planet’s finite carrying capacity."
There are good things though - the fact that we have a document at all, no state has refused to play ball, important global processes were strengthened and some new ones were set up, and Sustainable Development goals were proposed for the planet. But is this really the best the world can do in response to what we all know is wrong?
There’s two days to go - let’s hope the world’s leaders can galvanise themselves to step up a little higher for nature.