Book: From Rio+20 to a New Development Agenda Building a Bridge to a Sustainable Future (22 Jan 2014)

From Rio+20 to a New Development Agenda

Building a Bridge to a Sustainable Future

By Felix Dodds, Jorge Laguna-Celis, Liz Thompson

Routledge – 2014 – 264 pages

Description:

Twenty years after the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, "The Earth Summit", the Rio+20 conference in 2012 brought life back to sustainable development by putting it at the centre of a new global development partnership, one in which sustainable development is the basis for eradicating poverty, upholding human development and transforming economies.

Written by practitioners and participants involved in the multilateral process of negotiations, this book presents a unique insider analysis of not only what happened and why, but also where the outcomes might impact in the future, particularly in the UN development agenda beyond 2015.

The book throws light on the changing nature of multilateralism and questions frequent assumptions on how policy is defined within the UN. It shows that Rio+20 was more than an international meeting; it represented a culminating point of decades of successes and failures and a watershed moment for seminal concepts, ideas and partnerships including the Green Economy, zero tolerance on land degradation, the introduction of Sustainable Development Goals, the creation of national measurements of consumption, production and well-being that are intended to go beyond GDP, the introduction of national green accounting and the commitment of billions of dollars for sustainable development partnerships, including Sustainable Energy for All.

The authors conclude by mapping out a new agenda for development in 2015, when the current Millennium Development Goals framework is due to expire. An agenda that will restore faith in the UN and inspire a global response to the demographic, economic and environmental challenges that will define our future in the decades to come.

Content:

Introduction

1. The Re-birth of Sustainable Development

President Lula da Silva’s & Brazil’s case for a Rio+20

The 2008 crisis as a catalyst for breaking the silos between development and sustainable development

The old order changes and the emergence of new players in the developing world

The science underpinning an integrated approach towards development

2. Chronicling the Key shapers of Rio+20

How was Rio+20 constructed

The formal preparations process and the lessons to be drawn

The political role of the UN Secretary-General

Innovative partnerships supporting Rio+20

The informal process in New York and its importance for consensus building

International meetings that gave Rio+20 a global impact

Stakeholders preparations and their growing influence in the policy definition process

The transition from the informal and the global to the textual of The Future We Want

Enabling UN leaders behind Rio+20

The Rio+20 Secretariat

3. How did it All Come to Happen?

The decisions that were required to start building a new development framework

Key divergences as the meeting started

The Group of developing countries too diverse to negotiate as a single block?

The European Union and Rio+20

The United States of America and Rio+20

A final push to conclude the process

No perfect outcome: the gaps in The Future We Want

4. Multiplying Commitments

Introduction

The stakeholder dialogue days

Voluntary commitments

National sustainable development councils and economic and social committees

Subnational and local government

Future Earth

Education and training

World Congress on Justice, Governance and Law for Environmental Sustainability

Initiatives on transparency and access to information

Sustainable Energy 4 All (SE4All) and commitments and achievements at Rio+20

Financial commitments

5. From Rio+20 to 2015 and the New Development Agenda

Was Rio+20 a failure or a success?

A new inspiring narrative: development for all within the limits of our planet

Institutions for a new development agenda

How can universal sustainable development goals build a single yet differentiated development agenda?

Resource mobilization and financing for sustainable development

A reformed Economic and Social Council and the High Level Political Forum

The UN Environment Assembly and a new governance model for environmental sustainability

The role of stakeholders in global policy making

Ahead of January 2016

Appendix I: Stakeholder Forum

Appendix II: Earth Negotiations Bulletin

for more information: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415716543/