June 28, 2012
Amid continuing criticism against the outline agreement that came out of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development last week in Rio de Janeiro, a group of civil society leaders have signed on to a statement titled “The Rio+20 We Don’t Want” addressed to the UN and the government delegates at Rio+20.
Among the leaders signed on to this statement are Goldman Prize winners Marina Silva (1996) and Beto Ricardo (1992), as well as Prize jury member and WWF International President Yolanda Kakabadse.
The letter calls out the 283 paragraphs of the negotiation document—titled “The Future We Want”—as “weak” and that it “falls far short of the spirit and the advances made over the years since Rio-92.” The full statement follows below:
The Rio+20 we don’t want
The Future We Want is not to be found in the document that bears this name. The Future We Want is not what resulted from the Rio +20 negotiation process.
The future that we want has commitment and action, not just promises. It has the urgency needed to reverse the social, environmental and economic crisis, not postpone it. It has cooperation and is in tune with civil society and its aspirations, and not just the comfortable position of governments.
None of these can be found in the 283 paragraphs of the official document that will be the legacy of this Conference. The document entitled The Future We Want is weak and falls far short of the spirit and the advances made over the years since Rio-92. It even falls far short of the importance and urgency of the issues addressed. Fragile and generic agendas for future negotiations do not guarantee results.
Rio +20 will go into History as the UN conference that offered global society a outcome marked by serious omissions. It endangers the preservation and social and environmental resilience of the planet, as well as any guarantee of acquired human rights for present and future generations.
For all these reasons, we, as many civil society groups and individuals, register our profound disappointment with the heads of State, under whose guidance and orders the negotiators worked, and we state that we do not condone or endorse this document.
Ailton Krenak
Ashok Khosla
Bill McKibben
Brittany Trifold
Camilla Toulmin
Carlos Alberto Ricardo
Carlos Eduardo Young
Carlos Ritti
Christina Robertson
Daniela da Fonseca Reis
Davi Kopenawa Yanomami
Ester Agbarakwe
Fabian Cousteau
Fabio Feldmann
Giulianna Tarlao
Hamouda Soubhi
Ignacy Sachs
Jim Leape
João Paulo Capobianco
José Eli da Veiga
José Goldemberg
Juan Carlos Jintiach
Kelly Rigg
Kumi Naidoo
Luís Flores
Manuel Rodrigues Becerra
Marcelo Furtado
Mariana Moreau
Marina Silva
Mario Mantovani
Marvin Nala
Mathis Wackernagel
Megaron Txucarramãe
Michel Lambert
Mohamed El-Ashry
Nay Htun
Nitin Desai
Oded Grajew
Pedro Ivo Souza Batista
Pedro Telles
Peter May
Pierre Calame
Raoni Metuktire
Ricardo Abramovay
Ricardo Young
Roberto Klabin
Rubens Born
Sara Svensson
Sharan Burrow
Sergio Mindlin
Severn Suzuki
Silvia Dias
Simon Ticehurst
Thomas Lovejoy
Vandana Shiva
Wael Hmaidan
William Rees
Yolanda Kakabadse
