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Debate in UN falters as countries keep negotiating Rio +20 document

05/07/2012 - 13h57

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CLAUDIO ANGELO
SPECIAL REPORT FROM NEW YORK

The second round of negotiations leading up to Rio +20 ended inconclusively yesterday at the UN headquarters in New York. Because of difficulties in resolving certain impasses in the text that will serve as the foundation for the conference, the UN called for another week of discussion, beginning on May 29.

The meeting managed to reduce the draft of the document, known as "The Future We Want," from 278 to 150 pages. In order to be discussed in Rio, the document needs to be a third of that size.

However, as the number of topics under consideration increased from 15 to 26, the level of detail decreased because of some countries' unwillingness to make concessions that would allow for more ambitious objectives.

"The text is very big and not very smart," said Marcelo Furtado of Greenpeace, pointing to the dilution of content in the document.

Brazil, which is seeing less room for maneuvering after not assuming the presidency of the conference in June, has not ruled out the need for intervention by heads of state in the next few weeks in order to keep the negotiation on track.

Among the diluted themes being discussed in New York are the Sustainable Development Goals. These goals, according to Brazil's priorities, should be the main outcome of the summit.

The host country is proposing that Rio +20 should initiate a process for the SDGs to be adopted beginning in 2015. As of Friday morning, the text was almost entirely in brackets, which in diplomat language means that an agreement has not been reached.

Even things that were in the first version of the text, known as the "zero draft," were put in brackets, such as the proposal to double the capacity for renewable energy in the world in 20 years. The debate on the "implementation mechanisms"-money to fund sustainable development-also faltered in the face of the traditional disagreement between rich and emerging countries.

But there were also divisions among emerging countries. The biggest disagreement was in the G77, a group of developing countries, about the reform of environmental agencies within the UN.

African countries reaffirmed their position of demanding that the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) should become an independent agency.

The rest of the bloc would rather create a Forum of Sustainable Development to manage the social, environmental and economic dimensions of development. UNEP would be strengthened, but it would still be a subagency.

OCEANS

Another point of contention among developing countries was the proposal that a convention for the protection of oceans should be created in Rio.

Brazil was interested in the idea, which could be presented to society as a concrete result from Rio +20. The European countries were on board, but Venezuela resisted, leaving this topic for the next round of debate.

Translated by ANNA EDGERTON

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