The 1984 film ‘Blame it On Rio’ stars Michael Caine. Caine plays middle-aged executive Matthew Hollis who travels to Rio de Janeiro with Joseph Bolgna, aka Victor Lyons, with their respective daughters in tow. Lyon’s daughter, the lusty Jennifer, played by young starlet Michelle Johnson, develops a love interest in the much older Caine. The movie documents their clandestine love affair on the beaches of Rio.
-You can blame the night, blame the wine, blame the moon in her eyes, but when all else fails . . . you’d better . . . Blame it on Rio! -
Twenty years ago, Rio de Janeiro hosted the largest gathering of world leaders in human history to date. Countries joined together to solve world’s environmental problems. The 1992 Earth Summit in Rio was characterised by optimism, camaraderie, and a genuine hope to solve the climate change issue. It produced the Climate Change Convention that later gave way to the Kyoto Protocol.
Rio +20
Twenty years later, the United Nations is returning to the scene with the hopes of re-living the success of the original conference.
High hopes and high pressure are breeding scepticism for the upcoming conference. Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, now head of Green Cross International, is among many warning next week’s summit will not match the landmark summit of 1992. In an editorial piece, the former Soviet president juxtaposed the “optimism and hope” of the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 with the “cynicism and despair” looming over this year’s Rio+20.
Background
The sense of hope and optimism that characterised the 1992 summit is notably absent. The international climate change debate and has been plagued by two decades of increasingly unsuccessful conferences.
The hallmark agreement of the ’92 Earth Summit was the UNFCCC whose signing ceremony took place there. The latest UN conference on climate change in Durban last year was by all accounts a fiasco. Twenty years later the UNFCCC has still failed to produce any legally binding agreements.
Robert Slater was at the head of Canada’s preparations for the Earth Summit. To compare the mood of the 2011 Durban Conference last year to that of the ’92 conference is as night to day or as Slater puts it “deep night, bright daylight.”
The ’92 Rio conference was an unprecedented international event. It was the largest assembly of heads of state in human history. Over 170 governments participated with 108 heads of state present
The authority of these conferences has evaporated over the past twenty years. Perhaps the best indicator of this has been the trials and tribulations of the Kyoto Protocol – an agreement that has since been abandoned by Canada, US, Japan, and others.
The power dynamics have shifted. Governments and international organisations no longer hold the cards where multi-national companies and grass-roots communities seem to offer the greatest potential. In the middle, NGOs and academics just seem confused. Slater says, “they don’t know what their job is.”
Unfortunately these conferences, though proven failures, seem to be the only option. “We haven’t found an alternative to the model that was employed in Rio,” says John Stone, former head of Environment Canada’s Climate Change Program. “You see now that that model is very much in danger of disassembling.” Nothing of equivalent potency has emerged.
Critics point to the global shifts and failure of past conferences when speaking about the upcoming Rio conference. However, others suggest that re-visiting the scene of past success may change this and leaders will bond on the beaches like they did in ’92. A modern re-make of ‘Blame it on Rio’.
Argentina
President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner will be in attendance at the conference. With only a few days until the conference, the pressure is building as the draft agreement, titled ‘The Future We Want’, remains in debate. The agreement seeks to improve energy, water, and food security in poorer countries, reduce fossil fuel subsidies, and strengthen policies to protect the ocean.
Some countries in Latin America see the draft agreement and the focus of the upcoming conference on a Green Economy as a trap for the developing nations.
In an interview with Página 12, Under Secretary for Environmental Planning and Policy, Silvia Révora, who will be in attendance at the conference, explained some of the difficulties arising already with respect to the conference.
“The big difference is that the core countries are considering the concept of ‘green economy’ as the new environmental paradigm to save the planet,” said Revora.
“We argue that there is no definition of green economy, therefore we can not support something that is unknown.”
Another argument sure to surface next week has created deadlock in previous conferences; developing countries accuse the developed nations of doing too little and asking too much – and vice vesa.
According to Révora, “The central problem is: the core countries do not assume their primary responsibility. What they say is that because the environmental crisis is a global one, we all have to pay the costs equally. The poor countries, developing countries, and them. When they are the ones who have caused this environmental crisis.”
Preparatory talks broke down on Thursday evening as the G77/China bloc of 131 developing countries walked out of a number of early sessions.
They group said they could not talk about issues such as the green economy – which some see as likely to put a brake on development – unless Western nations were clear about the amount of financial aid they were prepared to pledge.
Lucas Campodónico is a member of the international facilitation team for Rio+Vos (Rio+You), described as the world’s largest youth-led news agency. A native of Buenos Aires, Campodónico hopes to use the conference to connect with other environmentalists.
Like many others, he is sceptical about the goals of the official conference. “My expectations of the official conference are really few. I understand that politicians are key and while there is progress in many cases, I think even they cannot take the bull by the horns.”
While he asserts that the conference is important, he doesn’t see world leaders as being able to coordinate solutions, rather, he points to companies and social enterprise initiatives to take the initiative in creating green solutions.
With respect to Argentina specifically, Campodónico sees the lack of political coordination and communication as a major impediment to developing and honoring environmental policy decisions.
International Cooperation?
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon (Photo courtesy of UN by Eskinder Debebe)
Pressure continues to rise in the week leading up to the conference. “It is too important to fail, too important to fail,” UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon said to journalists in New York. “We must not waste [this opportunity]. We must have a good practical outcome.”
Nobody expects Rio+20 to produce all the answers, Ban said, but it is crucial that leaders at least agree on the bare bones of a plan. “If we really do not take firm actions, we may be heading towards the end – the end of our future,” he warns. Ban is so concerned about the glacial pace of preparations for Rio that he ordered negotiators to spend five extra days trying to agree on some common goals.
Negotiations leading up to the conference have been forebodingly slow, casting further doubt on the possible success of the conference.
Notable absences from the conference will include US President Barack Obama, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. There will be more than 130 heads of state and government in attendance. Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the IMF, also plans to be in Rio. It will be the first appearance at any UN environmental conference for an IMF head.
Some analysts saw Lagarde’s attendance as a sign the IMF was attaching greater importance to the idea of sustainable growth. But even she was urging caution this week about expecting too much from Rio.
In practical terms, success would mean negotiators at Rio agree on goals for rich as well as poor countries. The top issues now are seen as access to energy, with Ban promoting an energy-for-all initiative, access to water, and easing the global food crisis.
Scottish Climate Change Minister Stewart Stevenson pointing the Climate Justice way towards Rio in a Brazilian themed sendoff to the Rio+20 UN talks in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo courtesy of Oxfam Scotland by Colin Hattersley Photography)
Blame it on Rio 2012?
Rio de Janeiro is filling up with heads of state, media, NGOs, and people from all over the world. The city is literally swelling with people and anticipation. More than 26,000 delegates have now been registered for the summit, including politicians, government negotiators, journalists and business leaders.
Despite the criticism, speculation, and general pessimism regarding Rio+20, it is clear the show will go on.
In fact, the absence of powerful heads state may prove to be a blessing. Lasse Gustavsson is executive Director of Conservation with WWF International. Quoted in a BBC article, with reference to the absence of some major world leaders he suggested, “We may look back on this as a historic moment when Europe handed over the sustainable development baton to the emerging economies.”
‘Blame it On Rio’, starring the next generation of world leaders?
