Rio+20 – A quick guide Posted on May 25, 2012 by Alex Farrow Email [View the story "Introducing Rio+20 - A summit for youth " on Storify] Introducing Rio+20 – A summit for youth Rio+20 is the informal name for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development. It is happening in Rio, in June 2012, 20 years after the Earth Summit in 1992. Storified by Alex Farrow · Fri, May 25 2012 06:37:57 What’s Rio+20 all about? Check out the video introduction to Rio+20 from the Rio+twenties. In 4 minutes it gives a great overview of what’s going on. It was made last year, so when it says Rio+20 is ‘next year’ – it isn’t! It’s in June 2012. Rio+20: an introduction for children and youthRio+twenties The Earth Summit In 1992, the Earth Summit - the popular name given to the UN Conference on Environment and Development – was held in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with 170 governments participating and over over 2,400 representatives from NGOs. The summit brought together a number of international bodies working on Sustainable Development. In the introduction video, you heard quotes from young people standing up for the rights of youth. The summit is famous for Severn Suzuki’s speech calling for negotiators to ‘change their ways.’ Severn Suzuki speaking at UN Earth Summit 1992speedyboh A pretty big deal really. We might be used to big international summits these days, but they didn’t used to be quite as common. 170 governments, Heads of States and NGOs from all over the world was a huge thing in 1992. The Earth Summit had a number of outcomes: • Rio Declaration on Environment and Development: principles that emphasized the coordination of economic and environmental concerns; • Agenda 21: global measures to protect the planet’s environment while guaranteeing sustainable economic growth; It also produced the Forest Principles, Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD), Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Some hugely important documents and agreements came out of the Earth summit. In fact, most of the agreements we have are good and needed. What’s missing is the implementation. Rio+10 Ten years later, in 2002, the Rio+10 Conference was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, and produced the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (JPOI). This focused on operationalising sustainable development through, poverty eradication, changing unsustainable patterns of consumption and production and production and protecting the natural resource base. Rio+20 From the Earth summit, 9 ‘major groups’ were established as the key stakeholders in the context of environment and sustainable development. One of these major groups is the Major Group for Children and Youth (MGCY). For young people, the major group is being coordinated by a voluntary organisation called the Rio+twenties. Rio+twenties | Youth @ Rio+20By choosing the title "the future we want", the UN has challenged us to avoid making the mistakes that we have made in the past and to ra… Rio+20 has two themes and 3 agreed objectives: The themes • A green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication (GESPDE), or in short: green economy • The institutional framework for sustainable development (IFSD), or in short: governance. The objectives of Rio+20 • Securing renewed political commitment for sustainable development; • Assessing the progress to date and the remaining gaps in the implementation of the outcomes of the major summits on sustainable development; • Addressing new and emerging challenges. These are some ambitious themes and complicated objectives to reach agreement on. Check out the additional introduction to the different issues, policies and likely outcomes also on youthpolicy.org. Fundamentally it’s about addressing The Future We Want. Rio+20: The Future We Wantunitednations Get involved To find out more information, the best summary is the Rio+Twenties participation guide. A lot of the information on this page has come from the guide and it gives much more information on the history, the issues, and ways you can get involved. Participation Guide – Rio+twentiesThe Rio+twenties-team has developed a participation guide to make the whole process understandable, giving you the tools to effectively… If you don’t have to read it though, here are some of the quick ways to have your say: Come to Youth Blast! Going to be in Rio? Come to the Youth Blast! Youth Blast ( or the Conference of Youth for Rio+20) is the official UNCSD Major Group for Children and Youth prep event for all children and youth who will be attending the Rio+20 Conference. The Youth Blast will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 7-12 June 2012. Thousands of young leaders from around the world will converge on the Conference of Youth for Rio+20 in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) to share their skills and prepare for Rio+20, and empower children and youth. Fall 2010 Expedition – Cancun – UNFCCCGreenpeaceSemester Follow on twitter There are some great people to follow on twitter to keep up with all the latest news and thoughts: @rioplussocial @Rioplustwenties @RioPlus20 @nwoje @PeaceChild @MGCY_UNCSD @bbennn @ukycc @youthpolicy @lloyd_rm @road2rio20 @tcktcktck @Women_Rio20, @EarthSummit2012, @ONU_RioMais20, @UNEP, @SevernSuzuki, @UN_DSD, @RioSummit, @MyCityplus20, @felixdodds, @baex @alexjamesfarrow @andyhix @nonformality. Join the Youth Space The Rio+20 Youthspace e-mail list is the main e-mail list. This is a group for youth from all over the world to share information and discuss about the upcoming UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). Please join this list to get all the updates, information sharing and general discussion. Click the link here. Key dates These are the upcoming events in Rio. 7-12 Jun. 2012 - Conference of Youth for Rio+20 (aka YOUTH BLAST) 13-15 Jun. 2012 - Third and Final Preparatory Committee 16-19 Jun. 2012 - Informal “conference of the middle” 20-22 Jun. 2012 - United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD/Rio+20) Jesus of Riosehmuzb Shape this space We want your help! Have we missed something? This page is meant to be a simple introduction to Rio+20 and to direct people to when asked ‘What’s that conference again?’ But if we’ve missed something, do let us know. Either tweet us at @youthpolicy or @alexjamesfarrow, drop us an email or leave a comment. Note This Storify has been generated with content from the Rio+Twenties Participation Guide to Rio+20 which is an open access document under a Creative Commons agreements. Email
