FDSD joined other NGOs to urge the European Commission to redress a bias towards economic and business issues in its communications leading up to Rio+20, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012.
In, for example, a recent communication Rio+20: towards the green economy and better governance, the European Commission put the economy, rather than people and the natural environment, centre stage. FDSD, the World Future Council, the Gaia Foundation and the Education Dialogue Group raised five concerns with EC Communication, which we outlined in a series of sign-on letters to several key EC institutions:
Concerns expressed to the European Commission about its communications prior to Rio+20
1. There is no recognition in the communication of ‘planetary boundaries’.
2. The communication seeks private sector engagement but doesn’t seek participation by people as workers, parents, children, employees, residents or citizens.
3. Although the communication talks about poverty, it has nothing to say about inter-generational and intra-generational equity or a fair sharing of natural resources.
4. It has almost nothing to say about the importance of public participation and access to information.
5. The communication fails to recognise the value and importance of national, sub-national or regional institutional frameworks for sustainable development.
July 2011
