Breaking: Leaked Rio+20 Earth Summit Final Agreed Text – Utterly Inadequate Response to Global Crises

Brendan DeMelle DeSmog
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DeSmogBlog has obtained the final negotiating text that will emerge from the Rio+20 Earth Summit and it is an utter disappointment to anyone who hoped that world leaders would pull together a meaningful global agreement on ending fossil fuel subsidies or other needed steps to protect future generations from resource depletion and global climate change.

Read the final text here: โ€œThe Future We Wantโ€[.DOC] or [.PDF provided by DeSmog for those without Word]

Update: The Guardian (which first posted the text earlier today) has this summary of the implications:
ย 

Barring a last-minute rejection by one of the main negotiating blocks, the draft that will be presented to the 100 leaders attending the summit will contain almost no timetables, definitions or ways to monitor new sustainable development goals, nor will it strongly commit nations to move to a โ€œgreen economyโ€ that integrates environmental and social costs into decision-making.

Instead, civil society groups say the new text simply acknowledges the world’s dire environmental and social problems without spelling out how to deal withย them.ย 

Read the early reactions to the final text below from Greenpeace and WWF.ย 
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WWF: Rio+20 Negotiating Text is Colossal Failure of Leadership and Vision

WWF Director General Jim Leape today issued the following statement on the negotiating text released this morning by Brazil:

โ€œDespite a late night negotiating session, the revised text is a colossal failure of leadership and vision from diplomats. They should be embarrassed at their inability to find common ground on such a crucial issue.

โ€œNow itโ€™s up to world leaders to get serious about sustainable development and save this process. If they approve whatโ€™s on the table now without significant changes, theyโ€™ve doomed Rio+20 to ridicule.

โ€œWhile some weak words have been removed, diplomats have swapped them with toothless language. This includes tongue twisters like โ€˜commit to the progressive realizationโ€™ and several promises to โ€˜recognizeโ€™ problems and solutions.

โ€œTheyโ€™ve added some positive actions around oceans protection. But, the text has lots of words that โ€˜commitโ€™ parties to nothing โ€“ such as โ€˜commit to promoteโ€™ and โ€˜commit to systematically consider.โ€™โ€

โ€œTwo years and one late night of negotiations later, diplomats in Rio are letting the world down.

โ€œWeโ€™re hoping that doesnโ€™t happen for all the hard work thatโ€™s been leading up to this moment, and more importantly for the health of the people and the planet.

โ€œWorld leaders โ€˜recognizedโ€™ problems 20 years ago, and theyโ€™ve done little about them since. How long are we going to accept โ€˜weโ€™ll look into itโ€™ as a solution?โ€

Greenpeace reaction statement to late close of Earth Summit:

Kumi Naidoo, Greenpeace International Executive Directorย said:

โ€œThe future we want has gotten a little further away today. Rio+20 has turned into an epic failure. It has failed on equity, failed on ecology and failed onย economy.โ€

โ€œWe were promised the ‘future we want’ but are now being present with a ‘common vision’ of a polluterโ€™s charter that will cook the planet, empty the oceans and wreck the rainย forests.โ€œ

โ€œThis is not a foundation on which to grow economies or pull people out of poverty, itโ€™s the last will and testament of a destructive twentieth century developmentย model.โ€

โ€œThe only sensible thing left on the table until today was the launch of an Oceans Rescue Plan for the High Seas. This too has now been killed by the US, Canada, Russia and Venezuela who want to mine the seas for private profit with impunity and exploit the resources that belong to allย humanity.โ€

โ€œWorld leaders will begin to descend on Rio today and we have to ask why? We were promised a green economy, the Future we Want, but all we can look forward to is three more days ofย Greenwash.โ€

โ€œFrom the G20 to Rio+20 this is not a good week for people and the planet. While billions are being spent bailing out banks and billions more on subsidising the fossil fuel industry, its clear whose agenda our leaders are following, that of business as usual of pollutingย corporations.โ€

Brendan DeMelle DeSmog
Brendan is Executive Director of DeSmog. He is also a freelance writer and researcher specializing in media, politics, climate change and energy. His work has appeared in Vanity Fair, The Huffington Post, Grist, The Washington Times and other outlets.

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