Overview: Rio+20 Negotiations at a Difficult Point

One year ago at the start of the Rio+20 discussions, there were very few references to oceans, coasts, and SIDS in the initial discussions.  By November of last year, we were all very happy to see significant mobilization on the part of member states, NGOs, international organizations, and others.  In the initial inputs to the Rio+20 zero draft, 67% of national submissions and 100% of political grouping submissions (e.g., G-77 and China, EU, CARICOM, Pacific SIDS) referred to oceans, coasts, and SIDS.
 

We were also very pleased to see strong paragraphs on oceans in the zero draft, which appeared in January, although we thought that they needed to be more specific and more actionable.  In my view, the initial draft did not cover sufficiently very important topics, such as:

--integrated ocean governance

--climate and ocean issues

--capacity development

--need for enhanced financing, especially for coastal developing countries and SIDS.
 

Last week’s “informal-informal” Rio+20 negotiations (held over the period March 19-27, 2012) were rather frustrating to watch, with country interventions going very much counter to each other.

I understand that this is the time in the negotiating process when things get very messy.  But, at the same time this is worrisome, as in some cases, there appear to be intractable divisions among countries.

The Major Groups also worry that, in some cases, it looks like the principles and actions agreed to in Rio and Johannesburg are also being eroded.  A large number of NGOs signed an open letter to the UN Secretary-General, entitled “Rights at Risk,” which voiced strong concerns over the lack of text on human rights and equity issues, as well as on the exclusion of civil society from participating in the negotiating process.

In This Issue

• Recap of Negotiations on the Rio+20 Outcome, Including for Oceans, Coasts, and SIDS

• Global Ocean Forum, IOC-UNESCO, and the Permanent UN Missions of Seychelles and Fiji Organize High-Level Ocean Side Event at Rio+20 Negotiations

• Global Ocean Forum Welcomes Additional Collaborators in High Level Oceans Event to be held at Rio+20 Conference

The global community cannot allow this to happen. We can’t let the Rio opportunity evaporate. We know that our planet and its people are in trouble, and that we need concerted and strategic action, accompanied by strategic financing, to pave the way forward.

In this issue of Global Ocean Forum News, we provide a recap of the negotiations and of the oceans side event held on March 26, 2012. We urge governments, international organizations, NGOs, and others to continue to push for a significant “ocean package” outcome at Rio+20, with concrete, actionable, and ambitious provisions on the major ocean, coastal, and SIDS issues.

We will report again from the next set of Rio+20 negotiations to be held during the period April 23 to May 4, 2012. For those attending, please mark your calendars for two Friends of the Oceans at Rio+20 events to be held on the evenings of April 24, 2012, and of May 1, 2012 (6:15 PM at the UNDP headquarters located across from the United Nations at 304 East 45th Street (10th Floor), New York, NY.

Dr. Biliana Cicin-Sain, President, Global Ocean Forum