Sustainable Development

Thank you to all who participated and contributed to making our inaugural sustainable development webinar a success! Stay tuned for the next installments on Green Economy in the Context of Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication, and on Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development.

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Sustainable Development

WFUNA's work in sustainable development focuses on international environmental governance, climate change, and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil June 20-22, marking 20 years since the historical Rio Earth Summit, which catalyzed global action on sustainable development and its three pillars:

• Environmental Protection
• Social Equity
• Economic improvement

The two major themes in 2012 will be Green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication; and Institutional Framework for sustainable development.

In the lead up to Rio+20, WFUNA is raising awareness on the need to upgrade the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to a UN Specialized Agency: A Global Environmental Organization.

The Need for a Global Environmental Organization

“Without a strengthening of international environmental governance, whatever is potentially agreed in Rio +20 will only contribute to a persistence of the challenges, rather than the delivery of the opportunities and the imperative for a more intelligent and equitable 21^st century development.” – Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP, 3 September 2011.

Millions around the world are already suffering from the effects of climate change and environmental degradation, particularly in developing countries. If the world is serious about achieving new goals set in Rio, we will need a strong and coordinated governance institution – one with resources and jurisdiction to facilitate and enforce compliance: a Global Environmental Organization (GEO).

Despite achievements in international environmental governance (IEG) through the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), the current governance architecture still fails to effectively mitigate global environmental problems.

By treating each issue separately through international agreements, there is a duplication of effort, lack of scientific data sharing, and inefficient treatment of the root causes of degradation. Moreover, as there are now over 500 MEAs, many developing countries find their financial and human resources stretched to participate in negotiation, administration, and implementation.

The official UN body on the environment, UNEP, is chronically under-resourced and does not have the policy or budgetary autonomy to holistically tackle all of the environmental problems we face.

A Global Environmental Organization could:

• Raise the importance of international environmental policy, and thus political will to meet commitments
• Provide membership to all UN member states (Universal membership)
• Have the ability to make autonomous decisions
• Have increased budgetary autonomy
• Be an anchor institution to provide policy guidance to MEAs
• Provide strategic direction to the many UN bodies with environmental mandates
• Facilitate scientific data sharing among MEAs and UN bodies
• Reduce the financial burden of participating in MEAs on developing countries by pooling reporting requirements and providing co-location of MEA secretariats
• Give a formalized voice to civil society and marginalized peoples, and their important local knowledge and technical capacity

To participate in WFUNA’s GEO advocacy initiative, see the tools and the resources on the right panel.

WFUNA and Climate Change

For more on our climate change program, visit our Go Beyond page here.

WFUNA and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

"Ten years ago, world leaders agreed on a set of ambitious targets to end poverty and hunger, expand access to education, enhance gender equality, improve maternal and child health, combat HIV/AIDS and foster greater environmental sustainability. The MDGs are not only a promise -- they are a test of our collective capacity and global solidarity will to advance human well-being at an unprecedented scale and pace."

–Ban Ki-Moon, 22 September 2010

For more information on our MDG program, visit our YOUth Impact Africa page here.