Jo Confino in Rio de Janeiro
Guardian Professional, Thursday 21 June 2012 07.10 EDT
Rio+20: Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff during the Opening Ceremony of the Brazilian Pavilion. Photograph: Buda Mendes/Getty Images
Thursday June 20 11.45
Oliver Greenfield, the convenor of the Green Economy Coalition, offers a contrary position to the view of the majority of NGOs that Rio +20 has been an abject failure. Here's what he has to say:
"Rio +20 is it a failure or a success? One thousand NGOs, institutions and individuals have signed a petition calling it "The Future We Don't Want" – citing failures on removing fossil fuel subsidies, failure to protect oceans, failures to address women's reproduction health.
Against this groundswell it is difficult for any civil society to say anything different. There are many failings, the ones above, the lack of dates, urgency. But the green economy idea has not died, and to quote the Venezuelan delegation during the final text release: "Green economy has changed from something that is being imposed, to something we own."
"We have a mandate, albeit weak, for many of the things we wanted. We have commitment to the sustainable development goals, to strengthening UNEP, to encourage corporate sustainability reporting, develop beyond GDP, adopt the 10 year programme on sustainable consumption and production, some signals on energy, and the bolstering of science in policy making. At first reading this is probably graded a C-, but it is definitely not a F.
"There three other important points to make. To deliver multilateralism we need a strong UN, and events that world leaders feel compelled to attend. Always seeing the glass half empty (or completely empty) does damage to future chances of success. Secondly, we have seen a geopolitical shift, not in economic power, but in leadership. The stars of the show have been Brazil and Colombia. The absence of leadership with power is perhaps why we got less than we need but more than we expected.
"So Rio + 20 has been a stepping stone, not a turning point. We are closer to coherence but the bigger battles lay ahead. The vision of a new economy has been born here. We will work to ensure that it grows up fast."
Puma chairman Jochen Zeitz says Arctic exploitation the Mount Everest of unsustainable development
Thursday June 21 10.40
I have just managed to track down Jochen Zeitz, the chairman of Puma and chief sustainability officer at luxury products group PPR, to ask him why he signed up to the campaign Greenpeace launched today to prevent exploitation of the Arctic.
It needs no commentary so here it is: "As a private individual and businessman, this campaign is fundamental. I abhor that businesses want to use and destroy the environment and use the effects of such as an opportunity for more business and thus more destruction.
"To me it looks like the Mount Everest of unsustainable development. Instead of coming up with good, clean and green new technologies to help protect and restore our planet. And hence our basis for long-term survival for future generations. There has got to be a limit."
If other business leaders are looking to have a lesson in leadership, you've just had it!
Even progressive businesses are living in La-La land
Thursday June 20 09.00
I wanted to highlight comments from Manish Bapna, interim president of the highly respected World Resources Institute, a US based environmental think tank, who had some harsh words to say about how business is living in La-La land.
Remember when you read what he has to say, that he is referring to the 1,000 plus most progressive companies in the world; in other words the ones who actually came to Rio +20.
"At several events this week, businesses at Rio were unable to grasp the fundamental recognition that the planet is on an unsustainable course and the window for action is closing. We were disappointed to find that most of the talk seemed to restate the basics, but failed to produce transformational ideas about how we can shift course in time. One notable exception was the Natural Capital Leadership Compact signed by 15 global companies, which urged action to properly value and maintain the Earth's natural capital."
He also launches a thinly disguised attack on the oil companies for putting their own selfish interests ahead of the survival of civilisation.
"Strong interests are holding back progress on many key issues," he says. "These include some governments, businesses, and others with vested interests that prefer to hang on to the status quo rather than advance change in the world. This was most clear earlier this week when world leaders failed to respond to the groundswell of voices that pushed to cut global fossil fuel subsidies."
It's not just business that gets it in the neck. On the final negotiated text, he says: "Almost across the board, the document is much too soft and vague to solve today's sustainability challenges. Much of the text is merely a reaffirmation of previous agreements or worse, a regression from those agreements.
"That said, we've believed all along that the more groundbreaking action at Rio+20 would be outside of the formal process. Certainly, after attending many side events and informal meetings this week, I've come across numerous examples of civil society organizations, entrepreneurs, companies, and others who are moving forward with innovative approaches to address sustainability. Perhaps more importantly, outside of Rio, many national and local governments are genuinely pushing ahead on sustainability in exciting ways."
Why Puma chairman Jochen Zeitz is unlikely to be invited to the Shell Christmas party
Thursday June 21 08.00
Question: What do Sir Paul McCartney, Penelope Cruz, One Direction, Jarvis Cocker and Puma chairman Jochen Zeitz all have in common?
Answer: They have all signed up to Greenpeace's campaign to save the Arctic.
We are used to seeing film stars and musicians put their names to public NGO campaigns before but is is very unusual for a traditional business leader to do so.
The only other businessman out of the dozens of famous people to call for a global sanctuary in the Arctic is Richard Branson, but he he is more superstar than corporate executive so for that reason he does not count.
Zeitz and others have joined forces with Greenpeace to demand that oil drilling and unsustainable fishing are banned in Arctic waters.
What this actually means is that a senior business leader has decided to speak out against his counterparts in the oil and gas sector. So that's him struck off Shell's Christmas party invite. We need more people like Zeitz to take a public stand.
They are among the first one hundred names to be written on an Arctic Scroll, which is launched by Greenpeace today at the Rio Earth Summit. When a million others add their own names Greenpeace will embark on an expedition to plant it on the seabed at the North Pole, four kilometres beneath the ice. The spot will be marked by a Flag for the Future designed by the youth of the world.
Anybody in the world can add their name to the Arctic Scroll and have their name planted beneath the pole by visiting www.SaveTheArctic.org.
When I met up the other day with Kumi Naidoo, who heads up Greenpeace International, he talked about the utter wrecklessness of the oil comapnies' Artic plans.
"This gives a sense of the madness of what is happening because it is so typical of the problem we are in," he told me. "Rather than seeing the melting of the Arctic sea ice in the summer months as a warning sign that this is real and we need to address it, we allow a handful of corporations to go in now and see what they can extract."
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