Download WWF has developed policy recommendations for Rio+20

WWF Q&A for Rio+20
1. What have been the main legacies from the Earth Summit in 1992?
Some of the most significant international agreements addressing the challenges facing our
planet – The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention on Biological
Diversity, the forest principles, Agenda 21 and the Rio Declaration - were developed 20 years
ago when the world’s leaders met in Rio de Janeiro for the first Earth Summit.
The Earth Summit was one of the first United Nations meetings that saw civil society involved to
such a wide extent. Since 1992, civil society has been at the table in many key discussions on
sustainable development.
2. What does this Conference mean for WWF?
Rio+20 is an opportunity to build on the success of the first Earth Summit in 1992, and the
sustainable development successes since then. Rio is the forum for leaders to launch a vision
and a plan that catalyzes fundamental change in our economies towards environmental stability
and social and economic equity, and ensure food, water and energy security for all.
WWF’s recent Living Planet Report warned that the world currently consumes 1.5 planets’ worth
of resources – Rio+20 is one of the most immediate and potentially influential opportunities to
equitably bring and maintain consumption to sustainable levels.
Governments at Rio+20 need to show that they are committed to preserving wellbeing on this
planet and to provide a roadmap on how they will achieve this.
3. What will success look like at Rio?
Success in Rio+20 means world leaders come together and deliver a clear vision of how we can
ensure food, water, and energy security for all, and commit to a future where humans live in
harmony with nature.
This success should be crystallized in a strong and ambitious outcomes document with clear
timelines, goals, and a reporting mechanism on progress, notably on:
 Accounting and reporting for natural wealth
 Targets on thematic issues such as food, water, energy and oceans
 Launching of sustainable development goals and indicators that go beyond GDP.
In detail WWF would like the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio to:

Acknowledge the interlinkages between food, water and energy and the need to sustainably
manage natural resources underpinning them in order to alleviate poverty and enhance
equitable wellbeing.

Make a global commitment to develop fully funded Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
with clear targets, timelines and indicators that will be fully integrated with the existing postMDG review process.

Provide that the sustainable management of natural wealth requires that the value of
ecosystem services is properly recognised and accounted for.

Agree on a process that would include transparent, annual reporting and review that would
result in the elimination of all subsidies that negatively impact the environment by 2020.
4. What is WWF's opinion of the co-chairs text? (June 7th 2012) This question will need
to regularly updated as negotiations progress
This is not a text that is ready for Heads of State. Country positions are still too entrenched and
too far apart to provide a meaningful draft agreement for approval by Heads of State present in
Rio. The text lacks political vision and the tone is weak and passive, with actions by Parties
being limited to “recognizing”, “encouraging” and “calling upon”.
The co-chairs text lacks specific timelines, targets and provisions for reporting. Also it doesn’t
reflect the growing consensus around the flaws of the current economic growth model, and the
need for redefining “progress” on a planet with limited resources. It lacks a clear path to go
beyond GDP.
The Sustainable Development Goals have made progress, with priority areas now being
specified, including food, water and energy security though at this stage these are still in
brackets. However, the water-food-energy nexus needs more consistency and coherence in
relation to decision- and policy- making. WWF welcomes specific language on the integration of
the Sustainable Development Goals process to the post-2015 development framework.
5. What are WWF's main asks at Rio?
WWF is asking world leaders to agree to a global political mandate that would shape an ambitious
sustainable development agenda for the years to come.
This mandate should include the following:
Sustainable Development Goals: Rio+20 should agree on a clear political mandate to
mainstream sustainable development across the post-2015 MDG development framework. At
Rio+20, world leaders should launch an expert-led process to develop fully-funded Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs), with clear targets, timelines and indicators, which must be
integrated with the existing post-MDG review process. SDGs should integrate the three
dimension of sustainable development, and be universally applicable and equitable.
The SDGs should be integrated into the MDG post-2015 framework. To ensure the achievement
of the SDGs, a sustainable development body within the UN could act as the agency where
progress toward SDGs is reviewed and promoted.
Valuing natural wealth: The sustainable management of natural wealth requires that the value
of ecosystem services is properly recognised and accounted for. At Rio+20, world leaders
should:
 Agree to set up clear and comparable methodologies for indicators to measure the quality of
the environment, nature, biodiversity and ecosystem alongside existing economic (GDP) and
social (IHDI) indicators.
 Pledge to take fiscal, legal and regulatory measures to better embed the value of nature,
biodiversity and ecosystem services in national accounts and corporate balance sheets and
reporting duties.
Subsidy reform: At Rio+20, governments should agree to transparent annual reporting and
review on subsidy reform leading to the elimination, by 2020, of all subsidies that negatively
impact the environment. This should include:
 All subsidies to fossil fuel industry
 All subsidies that encourage unsustainable farming, deforestation and damaging ranching
practices
 All forms of subsidies that encourage destructive fishing practices, growth in fishing fleet size
and fishing effort, including fossil fuels subsidies for fishing vessels.
Ocean governance: Healthy oceans are critical to support the wellbeing of humanity. At Rio+20,
world leaders should initiate, as soon as possible, the negotiation of an implementing agreement to
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) that would address the conservation
and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction.
Food, water and energy goals: World leaders must acknowledge the interlinkages between
food, water and energy and the need to sustainably manage the ecosystems, their functions and
services. These underpin the achievement of progress in those areas to deliver poverty
eradication. At Rio+20, world leaders must agree to ambitious goals to deliver universal access
to food, water and energy by 2030, with social, economic and environmental considerations
embedded as objectives under each of these goals.
6. What about Sustainable Development Goals?
WWF welcomes the concept of Sustainable Development Goals as a means to address the
critical and interlinked challenges facing the development agenda to 2030.
Rio+20 should deliver a strong outcome on Sustainable Development Goals – through the
creation of a common vision, principles, and criteria to embed sustainability in the post-2015
development framework, with key thematic areas identified in Rio+20’s outcome document as well
as indicators to measure progress.
Any work coming out of Rio+20 needs clear and accountable goals and timelines that have
sustainability at their core and can be taken up by the process to developing Sustainable
Development Goals by 2015. WWF wants Sustainable Development Goals to better recognise
and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development – economic, social and
environmental and be agreed in Rio.
7. What do we mean by a green economy or green economies?
“Green economies” (plural) is a recognition that there is no one sort of “Green Economy”, no one
size fits all. Green economies seek to effectively manage and govern natural resources, and to
de-couple growth from resource depletion. They also seek to improve human well-being in an
equitable way, within the planet’s ecosystems carrying capacity.
The vision of green economies is to provide people with clean water, energy and food for present
and future generations, by safeguarding the natural world and promoting pro-poor growth and full
employment.
We have the chance to recognise green economies as an opportunity for all, while ensuring
developed countries take the lead in promoting sustainable production and consumption to reduce
their global footprint. There is an opportunity for countries to establish clear and comparable
indicators, linked to Sustainable Development Goals, to measure environment quality by 2015.
Recognising that there is no one size fits all green economy solution, Rio provides the opportunity
for governments to commit to develop, fund and implement appropriate national strategies and
action plans to deliver green economies. These plans need clear objectives, goals, timelines and
transparent reporting.
Both public and private sector commitments are needed to help finance and implement the
evolution towards green economies. Moreover, international cooperation should be strengthened
to include technology cooperation, investment support, capacity-building and experience sharing
between developed and developing countries, in order to deliver green economies.
Furthermore, we need to “green” the GDP. The market value of goods should reflect their social
and environmental cost. We need to put an economic value on our natural capital. Our present
economic system does not account for the environmental and social benefit of natural resources.
Companies and governments must be required to report and reflect the environmental cost of their
activities in national accounts and corporate balance sheets.
8. What is WWF's involvement at Rio?
At Rio, WWF has been involved in Rio preparations with governments, civil society and the
corporate sector. WWF is involved in more than ten side events in Rio. See www.panda.org
9. How has WWF contributed to Rio+20 negotiations to date?
WWF has developed policy recommendations for Rio+20, and these have been communicated to
governments. These recommendations have been developed with the WWF global network and
have been used by WWF national offices in discussions with their governments. In addition, WWF
has held frequent discussions with civil society organizations, leveraging one another’s
involvement in Rio.
10. What is the food, water and energy nexus?
Agencies and organizations have been working on water, energy and food security for decades.
But, for the most part, they have treated them like distinct issues. The food, water and energy
nexus is about recognizing and capitalizing on the interlinkages between water, energy and food,
to develop policies that yield benefits across all three. This implies conserving the natural capital
food water and energy resources depend on.
11. Why should food, water and energy security be one of the main asks at Rio?
All three are essential to our well-being. They are the foundation of our societies and the lifeblood
of our economies. They are also closely linked, and as we focus on one, too often we overlook the
implications for the others.
12. How do we ensure food, water and energy security for all?
Specifically, WWF asks governments and businesses to:
 Govern and manage water according to the Earth’s carrying capacity rather than political
boundaries, and within the framework of integrated, participatory river basin management.
 Invest in integrated programming between freshwater conservation and water, sanitation and
hygiene.
 Protect and restore freshwater ecosystems so they can sustain biodiversity and the functions
that are vital for human health, livelihoods, well-being and security.
 Mitigate cities’ water footprint, increase urban resilience to climate change and variability, and
reduce water risks in urban settings.
 Increase efficiency in the food system by reducing waste in the production and distribution of
food.
 Promote alternative consumption patterns, including more balanced diets that are less rich in
meat, fish and dairy in high-income countries.
 Reduce the footprint of agriculture by making sustainable food production central to
development and encouraging the treatment and re-use of wastewater for agricultural
purposes.
 Adopt, enforce and comply with laws, regulations, policies and standards on sustainable
hydropower.
 Introduce fiscal policy and incentives to drive private investment in renewable, reliable and
sustainable energy supplies in developing countries.
13. What is a blue economy?
The concept of a blue economy does not compete with the green economy approach. Oceans
are critical to sustaining Earth's life support systems. Numerous communities and billions of
people are dependent on oceans for livelihoods, food security and economic development.
“Blue” and “green” economies are interdependent. It is critical to protect and sustainably
manage the use of the world's oceans in a way that provides equitable benefits from ocean
resources to developing coastal communities and states, in particular Small Island
Developing States.”
Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS) have said that for their countries, the “green
economy” is in fact a “blue economy.” The Pacific SIDS would like to see Rio become a turning
point in commitments to protect and sustainably manage the world’s oceans in a way that
provides equitable benefits to the people and nations relying on ocean resources as their primary
source of development. As part of this view, oceans and fisheries issues must be featured
prominently on the Rio+20 agenda.