World leaders have arrived in Rio de Janeiro for the final two days of the Rio+20 sustainable development conference, but observers believe they are unlikely to salvage the latest text that has been slammed by NGOs.

“We were promised the ‘future we want’ but are now being presented with a ‘common vision’ of a polluter’s charter that will cook the planet, empty the oceans and wreck the rainforests,” said Kumi Naidoo, executive director of Greenpeace International.

“Rio+20 has turned into an epic failure. It has failed on equity, failed on ecology and failed on economy.”

Other NGOs were equally scathing, describing the text as weak, vague and mostly reaffirming previous agreements. WWF’s director-general Jim Leape said it represented “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.”

Or, as 17-year-old Brittany Trilford, winner of a UN video competition, asked the leaders: “Are you here to save face? Or are you here to save us?”

The presidents and prime ministers are unlikely to re-open the text at this stage, suggested Todd Stern, the US special envoy on climate change. “They are going to speak at the plenary and express their views and commitment, and this document will need to be formally agreed to or approved in the high-level segment, presumably Friday.”

However, other have pointed to positive outcomes in the text, such as the inclusion of Sustainable Development Goals that will help shape the global development agenda.

Elsewhere, the movement to account for natural capital was boosted by commitments from 57 countries and 86 companies at the Natural Capital Dialogue event yesterday.

The World Bank’s vice-president for sustainable development, Rachel Kyte, said all the ingredients for the implementation of natural capital accounting were now in place, including a UN-recognised methodology, political commitment at the highest level and strong private sector support. “There is now overwhelming support for implementation across the world,” she said.

Meanwhile, the world’s largest multilateral development banks — led by the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, and others — committed to provide more than $175 billion over 10 years to support sustainable transport in developing countries.

There was more backing for sustainability reporting from the governments of Brazil, Denmark, France and South Africa, and five stock exchanges – Nasdaq OMX, BM&F Bovespa, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Istanbul Stock Exchange and The Egyptian Exchange – committed to promote long-term, sustainable investment in their markets.

The paragraph on sustainability reporting has made it through to the final Rio+20 text, albeit in weakened form. “The high interest of so many governments from the North and the South, from the West and the East, and from the UN is highly significant, promising and encouraging,” said Ernst Ligteringen, chief executive of the Global Reporting Initiative.

Christopher Cundy
Environmental Finance