Dear GEPers I realize this may sound like self-promotion, but I hope it is not just that :-)
As some of you may know, the first PrepCom for the 2012 Rio+20 Conference (officially the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development¹ and unofficially EarthSummit02) starts Monday but the preparatory negotiations have already begun, most frantically at the just concluded meeting on the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD). Yesterday, the Secretary General announced the leadership team for 2012, headed by China¹s Sha Zukang as the Secretary General for Rio+20 (the role that Maurice Strong had for both Rio and Stockholm). >From this Monday to Wednesday the first PrepCom will set the process and agenda for the meeting. Few, if any, in the media or in academia will notice. But I wager that in a year and certainly in two years from now, all of us will be noticing and pointing out all the things that should have been done. Sad that we are nearly never paying attention when agendas are being set :-) Now for the self-promotional part... I just published two op-eds on Rio+20 one with my BU colleague Henrik Selin which I thought some of you may be interested in: -- In TripleCrisis: "Getting Ready for Rio+20" » http://bit.ly/aFcNHT (report here: http://bit.ly/b0I3ad ) -- In Express Tribune "A New Deal for Development" http://bit.ly/aLppfS (report here: http://bit.ly/bSwqmt ) The Pardee Center has been quite active in the Rio+20 debates ( http://www.bu.edu/pardee/news/ ) and has also been publishing a series of policy briefs ( http://www.bu.edu/pardee/publications/ ) which we will continue doing so until Rio+20 (please consider this an invitation to contribute to the series, which has a good distribution within UN policy types): 005: Global Environmental Governance: The Challenge of Accountability By Adil Najam and Mark Halle http://www.bu.edu/pardee/publications/sdi-005-accountability/ 004: The Role of Cities in Sustainable Development By David Satterthwaite http://www.bu.edu/pardee/publications/sdi-004-cities/ 003: Are Women the Key to Sustainable Development? By Candice Stevens http://www.bu.edu/pardee/publications/sdi-003-women/ 002: Rio+20 - Another World Summit? By Miquel Munoz and Adil Najam http://www.bu.edu/pardee/publications/sdi-002-rio-plus-2/ 001: Pushing 'Reset' on Sustainable Development By Alan Atkisson http://www.bu.edu/pardee/publications/sdi-001-reset-sustainable-development/ Until a more academic literature on this emerges (I hope, soon) maybe this would provide something to at least get conversations going on what Rio+20 is and should be. I hope it helps. Regards Adil Najam ------------------------- ADIL NAJAM The Frederick S. Pardee Professor for Global Public Policy Director, The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future Professor, Department of International Relations Professor, Department of Geography and Environment >> >> Boston University >> >> Pardee House >> 67 Bay State Road >> Boston, MA 02215, USA >> Ph: 617 358 4000 >> http://www.bu.edu/pardee/ >> http://twitter.com/BUPardeeCenter
