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NEW DELHI: India and other developing countries successfully resisted a move by the United States to exclude references of the Rio Principles from the decisions of the United Nations Environment Programme taken at the Nairobi meet. The decisions of the three-day ministerial, the last big stop of all before the Rio+ 20 summit, will feed into the UN sponsored meet to be held in Brazil in June this year.
The United States attempted to repeat its success in the climate change negotiations. At the December negotiations in South Africa, the US successfully ensured that the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities was not mentioned in the decision known as the Durban Platform. At Nairobi, the developing countries worked together to block the US effort. The European Union had indicated that it was not opposed to the explicit reference to the Rio Principles in the decisions agreed to at Nairobi. This is not the first time that the developing countries have clashed with developed countries in order to safeguard the Rio principles.
The Nairobi ministerial deliberated on the twin themes of Rio+20--a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, and an institutional framework for sustainable development. At the last global gathering before the Rio summit, UNEP's governing council president and Spain's environment minister Frederico Ramos de Armas stressed that "time is not on our side" and that at Rio+20 "quick and immediate action to respond to the current environmental crisis" must be taken. This would include a a clear decision on the institutional framework for sustainable development and international environmental governance".
Developing countries have been concerned about the possibility of the idea of a green economy being used for trade protectionism and development assistance conditionality. This central concern was discussed at the Nairobi meet as well. In this context, the decisions agreed to in Nairobi made clear that it was essential that there be greater engagement across all sectors of society and between countries to address these risks.
However, despite apprehensions about the implications of a green economy, a general consensus has emerged that the green economy would serve as a pathway to achieving sustainable development, poverty eradication and decent job creation "by increasing resource efficiency, supporting the shift to sustainable consumption and production patterns and facilitating low carbon development".
In a recognition of the efforts by India and other members of the developing country bloc, G77 and China, the Nairobi decision stressed that there remained many challenges to realizing that economy especially in developing countries in respect to the necessary finance, capacity and access to relevant technologies.
There was also a great deal of support on strengthening the international environmental governance as part of the broader challenge of reforming the Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development. There was a high level of support for strengthening UNEP's mandate, authority and financial resources.
"While recognizing UNEP's contribution to sustainable development, there is overwhelming support that urgent change is needed to the current system," Ramos de Armas said. Over 100 countries, including members of the African Union and the European Union, have backed the proposal to upgrade UNEP to a specialized agency of the UN as part of the Rio+20 outcomes. Other efforts to strengthen the system called for greater involvement of major groups and stakeholders including local and regional authorities, women, indigenous peoples, young people and the private sector.
Achim Steiner, UN Under Secretary General and UNEP executive director, said that Nairobi has sent "a clear signal to the Rio+20 summit-namely that there needs to be an urgent focus on scaling up implementation of sustainable developments and that bold, transformative decisions need to be taken in four months' time in Brazil".
