Rio summit should endorse sustainable development

Xinhua, June 14, 2012

The world should agree on the need for a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and initiate the process to start developing them at the upcoming Rio summit, a UN expert told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Janos Pasztor, Executive Secretary of the UN's High-level Panel on Global Sustainability (GSP), said that governments should develop and apply a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that can mobilize global action and help monitor progress in global sustainability.

The concept of the SDGs, which will build on the current Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of anti-poverty and social targets that the world has vowed to achieve by 2015, will be one of the focal issues at the June 20-22 UN conference on sustainable development, known as Rio+20.

Despite their similarities, Pasztor said, the SDGs and MDGs are different in that the SDGs cover not only the poor, but all countries, including the rich.

The SDGs are still a new concept in debate. While some feel that the SDGs could replace the MDGs, others see them as an evolution based on the MDGs, he said.

It would be quite possible to have a set of global SDGs that fit on the top, while below them there are specific goals like the MDGs for certain countries in need, he said. "But still they would have to be part of an overall set of SDGs."

He hoped for the summit to make a "strong decision" on the needs for the SDGs and to kick off the process to start developing them after the Rio conference.

"It may not be possible for the Rio conference to actually come up with a list of goals, because that required a lot of work," which would be a two-track process -- technical measures to define the goals and political steps to put them into an inter- governmental process, he said.

GO BEYOND GDP

Pasztor also expressed hope that the Rio summit will take a "major political" step to endorse the concept that the world need to go beyond the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

World leaders should seek to scrap an obsession with the GDP as the only benchmark of progress, and agree to include environment and social factors at the Rio summit, he said.

"There is a common agreement by even the traditional economists that GDP by itself is simply not sufficient to measure progress."

The GDP only measures the value added, or the economic value of actions in the economy. While it is an important index, "but we know the crazy story that if you cut out your forest, you can increase the GDP. If you crash your car, you can increase the GDP. Now, is that a good system to measure progress? No," he said.

In its final report released early this year, the GSP, which was established by UN chief Ban Ki-moon in 2010 to advise him on global sustainability, called for a sustainable development index or a set of indices that go beyond the GDP.

Such new indicators will enable people to measure progress via other elements as well, including environment, resources used, and social targets like education, employment and literacy.

However, it does not mean that the GDP should be replaced entirely, a move that would be "drastic" but "unrealistic" and maybe not even necessary, Pasztor said.

Instead, an index or a set of indices should be developed to complement the GDP, which will continue to be used as a measure of economic activity, he said.

A NEW UN COUNCIL

The creation of a UN Sustainable Development Council (SDC) to look after the cause of global sustainability is also on the agenda of the Rio summit.

One of the key functions of the SDC will be to have a regular review of the progress of the SDGs, Pasztor said.

There are debates among member states over the council's organizational structure. While some favor a new independent UN body, others want it to be under existing UN organs like the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) or the General Assembly.

It may take years to figure out the issues as the SDC is a completely new concept, he said.

"I do not know how successful Rio will be on this," he said, noting that he did not think it would be easy and happen too fast.

"Maybe we need to learn by doing before we create a new council, " he said. "We could do that by simply using the General Assembly as a proxy and begin to try to undertake these functions."

"Then one day, maybe in a year or two, we could be ready to create the council," he added.

Over 100 policy-makers, civil society and private sector leaders are expected in Rio de Janeiro for the summit, a follow-up to the historic 1992 Earth Summit in the Brazilian city.

An outcome document, the draft of which is still being negotiated, is expected to be adopted to chart a sustainable future for the planet and the humanity.

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