Pardee Fellow Presents at the United Nations on Rio+20

Dr. Miquel Muñoz, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-range Future, presented at the United Nations during a side event held in the context of the first PrepComm for Rio+20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2012.

The side event was organized by the Northern Alliance for Sustainability (ANPED) , and convened under the theme “Sustainable Development Governance and Rio+20”

In his remarks Dr. Muñoz elaborated on the points argued in the Pardee / SDKP paper (#2) “Rio + 20, Another World Summit?” which he has co-authored with Prof. Adil Najam. He noted that Rio+20 could aim towards three increasingly ambitious objectives:

(1) upgrading the Global Environmental System (GEG)
(2) reaching a “New Deal” for sustainable development
(3) addressing values, particularly decoupling well-being from economic growth

On upgrading the GEG system, Dr. Muñoz said the main challenges for Rio+20 were to address implementation and accountability. Implementation will required a modified architecture which allows for the transfer of responsibilities to the local levels, where most implementation takes place. Accountability is essential for a functioning GEG system. Without accountability (by countries, by secretariats, to mission) even the most perfectly designed system will not work. For further reading on accountability, see for example Pardee / SDKP paper (#5) by Adil Najam and Mark Halle “Global Environment Governance: The Challenge of Accountability“.

On reaching a new deal for sustainable development, Dr. Muñoz said Rio+20 should not only be the follow up to UNCED in 1992, or to Stockholm in 1972, but also the follow up to Bretton Woods, in 1944. He said the development (UNDP) and money institutions (WTO, IMF, World Bank) should be fully involved in setting the agenda for Rio+20.