Pardee Center Task Force on Governance for a Green Economy Released at the United Nations

The newest Task Force Report from the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future – titled Beyond Rio+20: Governance for a Green Economy – was released at the United Nations at the Second PrepCom for the 2012 Rio+20 conference (the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development). The PrepCom, held at the UN Headquarters in New York on March 7-8, was the perfect venue for the release since the Task Force Report was conceived as an intellectual contribution to the preparations for the Rio+20 conference.

The Boston University Pardee Center was represented at the PrepCom by Prof. Adil Najam (Director), Dr. Miquel Munoz (Post Doctoral Fellow), Elaine Teng (Research Coordinator), and Ellie Perkins (Research Assistant on the Task Force).

The report, which discusses the role of institutions in the actualization of a green economy in the context of sustainable development, was made available to national delegations as well as members of the global civil society and academia who had assembled at the United Nations for the PrepCom. The two main themes for Rio+20 are institutions and the green economy. The Pardee Center Task Force focuses on the interface of the two themes. A number of participants commented on the timeliness of the report and the novelty of combining the two main issues of governance and of devising a green economy.

In addition to general distribution to delegates, the report was also made available at the special brainstorming panel that the BU Pardee Center had organized during the PrepCom on ‘Accountability and Implementation in Global Environmental Governance.’ The side event attracted a large audience of high-level diplomats, policy-makers, and civil society and academic experts and discussed many issues relevant to the Task Force Report’s topic. (A more detailed report on the event can be seen here).