Only Brazil can advance the final document

06/13/2012 - 16h14

The U.N. conference on sustainable development begins today in the Riocentro convention center with all hope on Brazil.

The host country is best positioned to break through the impasse between developed and developing nations that is threatening to produce a watered down final result.

In the hallways, people who are following the process say that they hope Brazil formulates a text that includes all of the objectives of the conference in a bolder way than the document that is being negotiated, known as "The Future We Want."

It is the prerogative of the president of Rio+20 to make a move like this if there are difficulties advancing. One European ambassador told Folha that the EU would support an initiative along these lines.

At the present moment, it is difficult to move forward. The formal negotiations on the document will be opened today, after three informal discussion sessions, with consensus on a quarter of the whole text. The draft is 86 pages; it needs to be cut down to 50 in order to be taken to the heads of state for a political decision.

The three main focal points of the document form the foundation of the agreement: the future of U.N. agencies that address environmental issue and sustainable development, the green economy, and the evaluation of progress made since Rio+20.

Developed countries have tried to go back on one of the pillars of environmental diplomacy, the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.

Adopted at Eco-92, this principle puts the lion's share of the cost for environmental degradation on developed countries, because they have consumed natural resources and polluted the planet in the course of their development.

Countries like the United States see the principle as a kind of subsidy to emerging economies. Developing countries, on the other hand, have a hard time with some of the goals of the green economy.

They understand the ideas as Trojan horse to allow rich countries to set up trade barriers to products from developing countries.

The only issue where there is not a clear divide between the rich and poor countries is the future of the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme). Europeans and Africans want to transform it into an agency that is independent from the U.N., while emerging countries and the U.S. want it to simply be strengthened. Brazil has already begun consultations to get around the impasse on this issue.

Yesterday the Brazilian minister of the environment, Izabella Teixeira, said that ministers will support the diplomats in these discussions. "The ministers are conducting bilateral dialogues, trying to reach consensus on points that need their intervention."

Translated by ANNA EDGERTON