Why Rio+20 Will Succeed

18 May 2012

http://www.thegef.org/gef/greenline/april-2012/why-rio20-will-succeed

By Gustavo A. B. da Fonseca

The global environmental agenda overflows with meetings. According to unofficial estimates, formal conferences on biodiversity, climate change, and desertification consume more than 240 days per year. Taking other environmental conventions into account, there are fewer days in a year than there are meetings to attend. The world has grown weary of slow-moving negotiations that lag further and further behind the mounting environmental problems they are intended to solve. Our growing understanding of the linkages between environmental and economic progress only makes this trend more worrisome for developed and developing countries alike.