From Marseille to Rio+20: Bringing Water to the Earth Summit

1. POLITICAL MESSAGES ON THE RIO+20 CONFERENCE

• Brazil is honored to host Rio+20 and  is making every effort, at all levels, to ensure its success.  President Dilma Rousseff has been actively engaged in mobilizing the the national Government in the preparations fro the Conference and has been discussing the topic in each and every of her meeting with Heads of State and heads of Government.
• The Rio Conference, of course, goes well beyond the actual summit of  Heads of State and Government, important although that will be . It involves a collective effort by both developed and developing countries and all interested parties, NGOs, private sector, academia and social movements to achieve ambitious results, paving a common ground towards sustainable development in the XXI Century. Brazil is fully committed to facilitating this process as host country.
• Brazil's position as a developing country, and, at the same time, as the 6^th greatest economy in the world, make it possible to build bridges across nations, North and South, aiming at strenghtening multilateral processes.
• Brazil will continue to participate actively towards the effective implementation of the objectives set in the Conventions on Biological Diversity, and on Climate Change, as it has done in Nagoya, in 2010, , and in Durban in 2011, when the good results achieved now pave the way for collective solutions for the pressing challenges facing humanity.
• Few days after the formal invitations to Heads of State and Government were sent, the Brazilian Government counts on  positive answers regarding participation in Rio+20 from over 80 leaders, from all quarters of the world.
• The Conference is happenning at a significant time, when developed countries face a serious financial and economic crisis. In this context, Brazil has been able to continue to reach important social, economic and environmental achievements in a democratic and transparent environment.
• The deep crisis faced by the developed world is a clear indication of the failure of current development patterns, and points to the multiple dimensions of the challenges that we are collectively facing: social, environmental, and, most evidently, economic. Rio+20 is a timely occasion for going one step ahead of  the international consensus regarding the paradigm of sustainable development and the juridical framework set through the three Rio Conventions established during the Earth Summit in 1992. It is now time to identify and agree on concrete initiatives, such as a set of Sustainable Development Goals, as proposed by the Colombian Government, and to provide for a solid institutional framework to follow up and help implement these initiatives through the strenghtening of the governance for sustainable development by means of  a Council for Sustainable Development, as recommended by the UN Secretary General´s Global Sustainability Panel (GSP ), that I am honored to have been a member of. These possible solutions and many more that are being elaborated by Governments, civil society and the private sector will be before us in Rio de Janeiro, next June. We must “seize the day” and contribute to build “the future we want”  by setting with pragmatism and determination the elements for a new low carbon resource efficient development model that will provide greater well being with social inclusion and the conservation and valuation of natural resources such as water, the issue that brings us to Marseille.

2. ABOUT THE ZERO DRAFT

• The Zero Draft is a good starting point. We note a significant level of convergence between the Zero Draft and the Brazilian submission to the UN.
• Brazil understands that the document needs to go further during the negotiation process in order to address the ambitions that we have with regard to the results of Rio+20. The Zero Draft addresses some themes without sufficient detail and should be more action-oriented, therefore, it still lacks the answers to the challenges of sustainable development which have motivated the Brazilian Government to propose a Conference to rethink current development models.
• Some topics, such as green economy, require further clarification in order to address the concerns that subsist among developing countries, which fear that the concept will be used to impose divisive development standards and may justify trade barriers. 
• One issue deserves a particular highlight in the Zero Draft because of its potential to join countries around concrete and effective results for Rio+20: the Sustainable Development Goals. Conceived to complement the Millennium Development Goals, they would contemplate objectives, goals and indicators that associate the three dimensions of sustainability and that aim towards universality, targeting not only developing countries, as the MDGs did, but also focus on industrialized nations.
• The section of the Zero draft on governance is the only part of the document with alternative wording. This shows that this is an issue that still requires special efforts to reach consensus. Brazil wishes an ambitious outcome around governance for sustainable development, as we face an urgent need for coherence and coordination in  multilateral actions in the field of sustainable development. We also believe that the Rio+20 outcomes should provide greater effectiveness to the environmental dimension, particularly in strengthening the United Nations Environment Program, which has clear limitations to respond to the great global challenges in the environmental area. A strengthened UNEP, in our view, starts with mandatory financial contributions and universal membership to the organization. Moreover, we also see a clear need for a revised mandate for the Programme.
• The Brazilian Government had acknowledged, in its submission document, the need to reinforce the role of civil society in the discussion and decision-making process in the United Nations system. We are convinced of the significant contribution that civil society can provide to multilateral processes.
• We would like to highlight the need for more concrete actions in the implementation of the Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration. This Principle deals with access to information in the environmental area, public participation in decision-making processes, and access to justice for those who feel harmed. Likewise, a more effective participation of civil society groups in multilateral processes must be enabled.
• The Brazilian proposal to conduct Sustainable Development Dialogues, a series of panels aiming at gathering significant world experts in nine issues strongly associated to the emerging sustainable development challenges, among which is water and also oceans. This is an attempt to bring formal UN processes closer to the knowledge, experience, demands and proposals of the civil society in its several sectors worldwide. The recommendations resulting from these panels will be debated at the highest level, during the Rio+20 summit level meetings. Issues covered by this initiative are: Food Security; Water; Oceans; Poverty eradication; Financial crisis; Energy; Economy, Production and Consumption; Cities and Innovation; Jobs and Migrations.

 

3. RIO+20 AND WATER

3.1. Brazilian Proposal

• In its national submission to the UN Secretariat regarding the preparatory Rio+20 process, the Brazilian Government has highlighted Water Governance as an issue to be addressed during the Rio+20. This proposal came from the diagnosis that the UN institutional structure is not strong and coordinated enough, with several agencies and overlapping programs, that deal with water-related issues. It is necessary to put in place a process to better coordinate and strengthen current UN initiatives, such as the inter-agency mechanism known as UN-Water. Moreover, this debate should take into account the experience of initiatives, not linked to the UN, that have been playing a key role in addressing international water governance issues, such as the World Water Forum.

3.2. Zero Draft 

• The Zero Draft reiterates the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as an essential human right, but does not provides guidance on the strengthening of water integrated management within the UN system. The Zero Draft affirms that member states "renew the commitments of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation on the development and implementation of integrated water resources management and water efficiency plans.”
• The Zero Draft proposes the establishment of a negotiation process towards a new agreement under the Convention on the Law of the Sea, which includes the conservation and sustainable use of the seas biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction.

4. CONCLUSION

• Brazil is committed to help Rio+20 be the stepping stone for a new development model that addresses, equally, the social, environmental and economic dimensions of development. Our recent economic growth in the past few years took place with notable advances in all the 3 fronts but we know much more needs to be done.
• We still have great challenges to tackle, in each sustainability dimension and in providing the appropriate governance, integration and coordination that sustainable development demands. We see the Rio+20 as an opportunity for the world and also for each and every country.
• Brazil is proud of having hosted the Earth Summit in 1992. As host and President of the Rio+20 Conference we will spare no efforts to ensure new successes and agreements towards sustainable development.  We know that Brazil is not alone in aiming for the greatest results from Rio+20. We  reach out to the many other countries and players around the world that we are willing and able to engage to join hands and help set the ground for us to grow, to include and to protect. 
• We will be pleased to welcome all of you in Rio de Janeiro next year.

Thank you very much!

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