Post by Federico Davila
Key
words: corporations, green economy, interests
I have been attending the Rio+20 Conference at Rio Centro, well described by
Stayner (2012, see post below) for 2 days now. The magnitude of the event is impossible
to describe in words. Formal negotiations have not yet started, rather
delegations are working on a draft text that will be formalised when the
conference opens on Wednesday.
The ANU Delegation has been busy
going to the Fair Ideas Conference along with numerous side events at Rio
Centro. We are all incredibly busy, but are having a fantastic time.
Taking this blog as a space to
communicate my reflections on the process, I wish to tell you of a particular
thing that I have noticed since Day 1.
This post is based on 3 photos
taken by myself, and 1 taken and published by the UN. The photos are shown
below and commentary follows.
Photo 1: Coca Cola Brazil & Rio+20. Together for a More Sustainable World
Well, apparently Coca-Cola will
change the world! The corporation, together with Rio,
will work towards a more sustainable world. I cannot grasp why the entire food
hall of the conference (you can fit an A380 in there by the way) has tables and
chairs with Coca Cola Logos. More concerning, how did a conference that should
be all about sustainable development, allow a private corporation that
encourages mass-consumption and use of chemical fertilisers to grow corn syrup
to sponsor Rio+20?
Every food stall sells Coca-Cola.
Numerous Rio+20 posters have a Coca-Cola logo
attached to them. The next photo is closely linked to this first one.
This is what the UN showed us on their Facebook Rio+20 site:
Photo 2: Official UN Photo (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=475482575800065&set=a.475482539133402.125580.215269391821386&type=1&theater)
OK please note the contrast here.
The UN chose to show the world this photo on their Facebook page to highlighting
the lovely blue messages of the future we want.
They very conveniently, however,
disguised and did not upload on their Facebook page the end of that wall, where
it turns green and shows this:
Photo 3: The end of the Future we Want wall, showing the Lead Sponsor of the Conference.
Here we have Capstone Turbine
Corporation. They are present in car factories, oil rigs, you name it. Now I am
not saying I am anti-turbines.We need them. We would not function the way we do
without them.My concern with this is that the conference, somehow, has selected private enterprises to sponsor it.
Reading into these things, to me it symbolises the lack of transparency to acknowledge the actual interests
that are being portrayed here in Rio+20.
The Green Economy, as outlined by
the ETC Group (2011) is the labelling of our business as usual model with a
lovely name. A Green Economy will perpetuate our current means of
production and development. It will keep seeking the technocratic solutions to
environmental degradation without taking the holistic and non market approach
to saving the world.
A final photo that summarises the
interests of Rio+20 is below. Not many words
are necessary to describe the issues with these mega billboards spread
throughout the Convention Center.
Look at the order here.
- Economy
- Social
- Environment
Rio+20
is not about environmental health. It is not about preserving the ecosystem
services human well being is dependent on.
Rio+20
is, perhaps, a subtle and disguised power play of corporate and political interests to get away with
continuing environmental harmful practices.
Am I reading into this too much?
No, I am not. I have discussed this with other members of the Delegation. We
agree. Rio+20 will create a space for the
viscous means of production that have degraded our environment to continue for
the endless grow of economies in a world with finite resources.
I
am sorry if this blog has been negative, but I think it is the reality
of the current state of the world. These realities are kept quiet, no
one wants to say what is happening. These things are not said by
delegates. They
are not said by politicians.
They are, however, loudly said by activists, youth
movements, thinkers, academics, and pretty much everyone from the 9 Major
Groups who we have been engaging with in various events.
These 9 Major Groups are the ones
that offer hope for the world. I will blog about this soon. There are thousands
of people in this city, right now, with amazing ideas of how to create change
without using the existing, controlling and closed walls of the Rio+20 Process.
Rio+20 will not create the global governmental top-down change we strive for.
Rio+20
will, however, bring incredibly creative and imaginative people
together with ideas that will need to be up-scaled to achieve
sustainable development. Rio+20 is allowing these ideas to flow
throughout the world, with names, business cards and concepts flying to
all corners of the planet.
Rio+20
offers the necessary platform for communication to happen on positive,
fair ideas for sustainable development. These will be shared amongst
civil society, and with time, grow and strengthen to contribute towards
the future we want.
I look forward to your comments,
Federico Davila
June 17 2012
Reference:
ETC
Group (2010). Who will control the green economy? Available at:
http://www.etcgroup.org/content/who-will-control-green-economy-0
well written. Its encouraging though that all the young people there are aware of this not so subtle agenda for Rio+20. freakin coca cola. Its like the OECD new report "green growth" which basically states we're going to continue to trash the planet, just less than usual and using different tech.
ReplyDelete