Rio+20

June 20th-22nd, 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for the largest global environmental summit in 10 years.  20 years after the first global environmental summit happened in Rio de Janeiro, the conference has quickly taken the name ‘Rio+20‘.  The agenda is significant: creating global sustainable development goals, increasing funding for environmental practices in economic production, strengthening th e institutional basis for global environmental politics, and restarting a stalled global environmental negotiation process.

Here are some necessary background information from this blog and others about the issues at hand.

Rio+20 Outcome Document: The Future We Want

Link to PDF Version

Permanent HTML Version

Countdown to Rio+20 Articles By Lullaby of the Commons

• #28: The Definitive Twitter History of Rio+20 Sustainable Development Conference June 22, 2012
• #27: The Impacts of the Identity Crisis at Rio+20 June 21, 2012
• #26: Rio+20 Outcome Text in a Single Picture June 20, 2012
• #25: Who is to Blame for the Weak Text at Rio+20 June 19, 2012
• #24: Has Civil Society Ever Met an Environmental Agreement they Liked? June 19, 2012
• #23: Sustainable Development Goals Cannot Wait June 19, 2012
• #22: #endfossilfuelsubsidies Twitter Campaign Raises Profile June 18, 2012
• #21: A funny thing happened on the way to Rio+20…[Negotiation Update June 17, 2012] June 18, 2012
• #20: UNEP will Not be Strengthened at Rio+20 June 17, 2012
• #19: Are there Big Stumbling Blocks or Lots of Small Ones? June 17, 2012
• #18: News Round-Up June 10-June 16 June 16, 2012
• #17: Sustainable Development at the Local Level is Key Outcome June 15, 2012
• #16: Taking Vulnerability Seriously June 15, 2012
• #15: The Future I Want June 14, 2012
• #14: Obama will not attend the Rio+20 Conference June 13, 2012
• #13: The Best Sources for Information About Rio+20 June 11, 2012
• #12: News Round-up June 2-June 10 June 10, 2012
• #11: News Round-up May 26-June 1 June 1, 2012
• #10: What are Sustainable Development Goals? Why Are they Important? May 31, 2012
• #9: The Return of the North-South Divide May 30, 2012
• #8: Brundtland and Cardoso Make Plea for Progress May 29, 2012
• #7: Civil Society Can Choose Recognition or Responsibility May 28, 2012
• #6: News Round Up May 19-May 25 May 25, 2012
• #5: Every Issue or Just a Few? May 24, 2012
• #4: Do we have the Right Institutions to Go Small? May 23, 2012
• #3: President Obama Should Attend the Rio+20 Summit May 22, 2012
• #2: When do Big Environmental Conferences Work? May 21, 2012
• #1: Can we win big by going small? May 20, 2012

Other Articles at Lullaby of the Commons

• Women, Children, and Indigenous People Last: Do broad platitudes at international environmental conferences matter?  May 6, 2012
• Corporate Sustainability Reporting: Is this an important outcome for Rio+20 and the Green Economy? May 4, 2012
• Got Global Summit Fatigue?  The Cure to Take Before Rio+20 April 28, 2012
• Does the Global Environmental Political System need an Overhaul at Rio+20?  April 23, 2012
• Create a Chief UN Scientist: Why Didn’t They Have One Already?  April 4, 2012
• Where did the Environment Go at International Conferences? A Critical Appraisal of the Rio+20 Approach March 27, 2012
• The Istanbul Declaration: Paper Plane or Paper Tiger? March 24, 2012
• Rio+20 Interview #1: Ricardo Navarro  February 25, 2012
• Who is Attending International Environmental Conferences?  February 24, 2012
• Should the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) become a Specialized Agency? February 20, 2012
• Responsibility to Protect and the Green economy: A Shared Responsibility?  February 14, 2012
• What does Rio+20 Mean? February 8, 2012
• United Nations Environment Programme: Future Relevance? February 5, 2012

Other Background Sources:

• Official Rio+20 Conference Website
• IISD Earth Negotiations Bulletin Page
• Guardian Rio+20 Page
• International Council for Science Rio+20 Page
• NRDC Rio+20 Page
• SciDev.net Rio+20 Coverage

Document Collection
One aggravating thing is when looking at old conferences a lot of the links will be broken, behind pay-walls, or have other problems and a large amount of information is lost in the ether of the internet.  This document collection serves as a repository of full text sources in order to provide them to any interested individuals.  Links to original sources will be provided, but full text will be included for all sources:

• Wael Hmaidan, Statement by NGOs Major Group During High Level Plenary Session, Rio+20, June 20, 2012
• Greenpeace Comment on State of Rio+20 Negotiations, http://www.greenpeace.org, June 19, 2012
• Martin Khor “Rich Nations Changing Tune” Malaysian Star, June 4, 2012.
• Gro Harlem Brundtland and Fernando Henrique Cardoso “Rio+20s Opportunity Will be Squandered without Courage and Vision” The Guardian: Poverty Matters Blog, May 28, 2012.
• Ban Ki-Moon. “The Future We Want” New York Times, May 23, 2012.