Rio+20 Day 3 Live: Coverage from the UN Summit on Sustainable Development

By John Parnell and Ed King

– Day 3 coverage from the Rio Conventions Pavilion at RioCentro
– Today is the last day of talks on the Rio+20 draft outcome before Ministers arrive next week
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– Send your thoughts to [email protected]
– Latest news at top of page
– All times Brazil local (GMT -3)

1916 That’s it from our coverage today. It’s ocean’s day tomorrow so expect a strong focus on acidification and corals, coastal erosion, fisheries and more. We’ll also let you know how the negotiation’s went on the draft agenda. No news on site yet, hopefully, no news is good news…

1857 Pessimistic view from Rio ’92 chief Maurice Strong:

1808 

1645 Here’s that story now.

1615 RTCC_john: Just had an interesting talk with an advisor to the Ugandan Government. G77+China threatened to walkout of the negotiations yesterday over financing for the green economy. They want the developed world to redirect their fossil fuel subsidies to kick-start a new economy. Full story shortly.

1530 Communities across the world have arrived in Rio to make their case for a new approach to development – here’s the view from Chad – where water is becoming an increasingly scarce resource…

1445 UNESCO says Africa needs 300% increase in water engineers to meet demand, one example of why education underpins sustainable development.

1441 The World Bank says 40% of its entire portfolio is at risk to the effects of climate change. It has $11bn of environmental investments alone.

1423 Hope this illustrates the sheer size of Rio+20.

1344 Business is well-represented in the main park here in Rio….keen to showcase new technologies and trends. We popped by the BMW tent to see what they have to say about the ‘green economy’….the key question is can you make money from electric and hybrid vehicles?

1250 And here is that full story from the Seychelles’ Ambassador.

1233 The importance of valuing nature. Another good perspective from the Rio Conventions Pavilion Studio.

1149 A Seychelles diplomat has just told us “the usual suspects are holding up the talks”. Full story to come.

1145 Another epic bus ride later and we’re up and running again. The IISD has some interesting observations on yesterday’s talks:

Meanwhile, in splinter group after splinter group, observers commented on delegates’ growing reliance on previously agreed text, from General Assembly Resolutions to the outcomes of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development and the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women. As one delegate commented, “If all we’re going to do here is regurgitate what we’ve said before in other fora, why are we even here?” With many saying they are still looking for vision and leadership – together with the forward-looking ideas and text – the countdown has started. Some have asked if the “Future We Want” will turn out to be the past we already had.

0900 The 6th Youth World Congress ended in Rio this week with the participants setting out their 20 solutions for a sustainable future:

 

0747 We’ll be talking to Human Rights Watch’s Jan Egeland at the pavilion studio today. Watch out for that later on. We’ll also find out about the “green arms race” going on among the world’s car builders.

0743 The first big crunch time for Rio+20 has arrived. Progress has been slow this far. It could be long day for negotiators.

 

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