Future compromised

In the morning of June 19, bleary eyed negotiators left Pavilion 3 of Riocentro to return to their hotel rooms to freshen themselves up. A long round of intense negotiations had taken place the previous night to finalise the outcome draft of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, also called Rio+20.

Rio: not plus or minus, just 20

The Rio+20 UN conference on sustainable development is over. The conference declaration, titled “The Future We Want”, is a weak and meaningless document. It aims at the lowest common denominator consensus to say it all, but to say nothing consequential about how the world will move ahead to deal with the interlinked crises of economy and ecology. Is this the future we want or the future we dread?

Beyond Rio+20

It was June of 1992. The location was Rio de Janeiro. The occasion was the world conference on environment and development. A large number of people had come out on the streets. They were protesting the arrival of George Bush senior, the then president of the US.

How to rewrite the Durban script

It’s that time of the year again. Climate change talks are heating up, with the next conference of parties scheduled in Durban in end-November. There is heat but no light. The negotiations are stuck despite the clear signs of climate change: dangerous and potentially catastrophic extreme weather events.

20 years to…where?

Next year, in June, world leaders will get together in the joyful city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to mark 20 years of UNCED—the Earth Summit (see Down to Earth, May 15, 1992).

News 360

VIEW FINDER NOT A USUAL EXERCISE Soldiers smell the ground to detect bodies of flash flood victims in Taiwan after Typhoon Morakot battered the island's

To industry's tune

"With a small half life, endosulfan does not pose any serious health risk in tropical countries like ours" --Indian delegation at Rotterdam Convention  

The asbestos battle

Stale food from Rome

the run-up to the high-level conference on food security in Rome promised a substantial shift in agricul-tural outlook, given host Food and Agricultural Organization's avowed focus on biofuels as a major contributor to the global food crisis. But a few days before the meet, biofuel proponents led by the us launched a massive international spin, and now biofuel, a 'crime against humanity', is on its way to find human acceptability.

COP-9 makes slow progress

the ninth meeting of the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity concluded on May 30 in Bonn, Germany, with measures to protect ecosystems. The Conference of Parties (cop), the governing body of the convention, agreed on regulating the international biofuel sector. It also passed a moratorium on ocean fertilization--dropping nutrients into the sea to boost CO2-absorbing algae--citing lack of scientific knowledge on its impact.