
SUBMISSION TO THE BUREAU OF THE
UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
by the
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT FORUM
25 October 2011
http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?page=view&type=510&nr=166&menu…
The International Environment Forum (https://iefworld.org), a Bahá'Ã-inspired professional organization for environment and sustainability with members in over 50 countries, accredited to WSSD in the science and technology major group, offers the following specific elements for the compilation of the zero draft outcome document for UNCSD next year.
a) Objective of the Conference - sectoral priorities: natural disaster preparedness and climate change adaptation
PREPARING FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MIGRATION
Basis for action
With accelerating climate change, sea level rise, resource degradation and
water shortages, the projected scale of forced environmental migration in
coming decades will exceed anything previously experienced, with estimates
of 100-500 million people or more permanently displaced. This will be
traumatic for those displaced, and represents an enormous challenge for
the receiving countries and communities where immigration is presently a
major source of tension and human rights violations.
Objective
To organize an appropriate international response to forced environmental
migration with institutional, financial and humanitarian dimensions in a
proactive response to prevent crises, widespread human suffering and
environmental impact.
Activities
1. Undertake scientific assessments of the human carrying capacity of
different regions of the world and anticipated changes with climate change
to determine which regions and countries will be unable to support their
present or projected populations and which areas have the space and
resources to receive environmental migrants.
2. Create an international legal framework for environmental migrants comparable to that already functioning for political refugees, to recognize their status as displaced persons with no possibility of return, and to protect their human rights as far as possible. Provision could be included for migration in groups or as whole communities to assist in preserving social relationships, community structures and cultures.
3. Establish a mechanism under the United Nations, similar in function to the World Trade Organization, to negotiate a lowering of barriers to immigration and to allocate environmental migrants equitably among countries able to receive them. This could include a financial mechanism to ensure that the costs of resettlement are equitably shared by the international community.
4. Initiate wide public discussion of environmental migration, the imperative of showing solidarity with victims of climate change and other environmental changes based on underlying ethical principles, the advantages of immigration for receiving communities, and the means to build unity in diversity among peoples of diverse origins and cultures.
b. Green Economy
PRINCIPLES FOR THE GREEN ECONOMY
Basis for action
The controversy surrounding proposals for the green economy reflects fears
that a superficial response will not address fundamental concerns about
justice, equity, and social and environmental responsibility. Some
relevant principles have already been adopted in the Rio Declaration and
elsewhere. To achieve consensus, an explicit statement is needed of the
principles underlying the green economy, recalling previous principles and
extending them where necessary. The following are some suggestions to be
elaborated further.
Objective
To develop a clear declaration of the principles underlying the green
economy for a sustainable society.
Principles
The green economy should:
- further a dynamic and thriving social order that is just, fair and
equitable to all;
- be strongly altruistic and cooperative in nature;
- provide meaningful employment;
- help to eradicate poverty in the world while reducing extremes of
wealth;
- ensure sustainable environmental management;
- provide the peoples and institutions of the world with the means to
achieve the real purpose of development: that is, the cultivation of the
limitless potentialities latent in human consciousness for the betterment
of the world.
INDICATORS
Basis for action
The dominant economic indicators such as GDP do not provide signals for
sustainability, and even sustainable development indicators miss some of
the most important driving forces necessary to move on a trajectory
towards sustainability. In particular, the underlying materialistic
assumptions of most economic thinking do not reflect the views of a
majority of the peoples of the world. The development in Bhutan of a Gross
National Happiness measure is an example of what can be done at the
national level. Recent research has shown the practicality of values-based
indicators at the project or group level (http://www.esdinds.eu).
Objective
Develop indicators reflecting the values and ethics underlying individual
and collective choices and behaviour necessary to achieve sustainability,
while incorporating and adapting to the diverse cultural, ethnic and
spiritual traditions of nations and peoples, to express a more complete
vision of the goals and purpose of a sustainable and ever-advancing
civilization and of desires for happiness and prosperity.
Activities
1. Encourage research and public debate on rethinking prosperity and
happiness in the context of human well-being and community development in
a sustainable society, as the basis for developing national indicators of
progress towards these goals.
2. Add values-based and ethical indicators to the indicators of sustainable development prepared under the Commission on Sustainable Development.
3. Stimulate and encourage work on values-based indicators of education for sustainable development for use at all levels in organizations, communities, projects, governments and businesses.
c. Institutional framework for sustainable development
ETHICAL SUPPORT TO POLICY-MAKING
Basis for action
The UN has adopted ethical principles in the UN Charter, the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, the Rio Declaration and other instruments,
but too often they remain as generalities and their implications are not
sufficiently considered in policy and decision-making. Paragraph 6 of the
WSSD Plan of Implementation on the importance of ethics for sustainable
development requires further action to be effective. Civil society has
also completed the Earth Charter after Rio.
Objective
Ensure that both recognized international ethical principles and the
ethical concerns of civil society are available to UN bodies and
decision-makers when adopting policies, programmes and actions.
Activities
1. Establish a UN Permanent Forum on Ethics and Religion, patterned after
the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, where faith-based organizations
and those addressing ethical issues, that accept the principles of the UN
Charter, declarations and covenants, can consider the ethical and
spiritual implications of UN policies, activities and proposals and make
submissions to ECOSOC and other relevant UN bodies.
2. Create within the UN Secretariat an Office of Ethical Assessment to prepare reports, at its own initiative or on request for the General Assembly, the Security Council, ECOSOC and other UN bodies, programmes and agencies, on the ethical implications of issues, policies and programmes, with reference to the ethical principles in the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Rio Declaration and other instruments and covenants, and to the world's spiritual, philosophical and cultural traditions.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FOR COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT
Basis for action
The foundation of human development is our inherent capacity to learn.
Science and technology should be accessible to everyone in accordance with
their capacity, but they remain largely the preserve of an educated elite
with a top-down process of delivery. Most technological development today
is driven by market forces that neither reflect nor respond to the basic
needs of the world’s peoples. To achieve sustainability, everyone should
be empowered with the tools and approaches of science: evidence based
reasoning, understanding cause and effect, experimentation, thinking in
terms of systems in a long-term perspective, and learning adaptive
management in a time of dynamic change. The natural and social sciences,
crafts, and local and indigenous knowledge based on similar processes of
observation and experimentation, can all contribute to sustainable
community development. Institutional capacity and learning processes
should be developed within local populations to create and apply knowledge
in ways that address the specific needs of that population.
Objective
Build a base for the universal extension of natural and social sciences
and technology through educational programmes and regional centres of
research and training accessible to everyone and allowing widespread
participation in the generation and application of knowledge.
Activities
1. Support the development and implementation of curriculum materials that
introduce scientific thinking and methods into all levels of education,
with particular attention to developing countries.
2. Encourage the efforts of civil society organizations in community and neighbourhood education and consultation on the science and ethics of environmental responsibility, climate change, moderation in consumption, sustainable use of energy and resources, environmental migration, and local environmental management.
3. Facilitate the integration of natural and social sciences and indigenous knowledge systems in defining sustainable environmental management adapted to local conditions and cultures and to community needs.
4. Adapt methodologies for environmental impact assessment and monitoring to make them accessible to local communities and resource users regardless of their educational level, supported by extension programmes in their use to support local sustainability.
5. Establish regional centers of research and training for sustainable development empowered to create technologies addressing locally defined needs and priorities that take into account both the material and moral prosperity of society as a whole.
Last updated 1 November 2011