Now is the time! Rio+20 must succeed!

As Ecofunders, we believe climate change conferences and government laws are important, but we need more local green champions. Likewise, our champions need tangible political decisions aiming to protect our ecosystems.

One year before Rio+20, the UN conference on sustainable development, Dr. Steffen Bauer and Prof. Dr. Dirk Messner, experts from the German Development Institute (GDI), one of the world’s leading think tanks for development policy, have released a statement. Below, here are the main main messages of the statement.

- Together with high level experts from 7 countries, Dirk Messner and Steffen Bauer urge their governments to produce a joint statement that expresses the visionary notion of a green economy into a tangible roadmap for action.

- A green economy should aim to promote renewable low-carbon energy sources, to facilitate access to green technology, to build resource-efficient “smart” infrastructures and cities, to create green jobs and value ecosystem services while keeping poverty alleviation and equity considerations at its core.

- Preservation of the environment is in the best interest of all: While the prospective costs of inaction will be immense for both developed and developing countries, sustainable development in a green economy can benefit all. - For such a roadmap to be successfully implemented, extensive decisions on international environmental governance are necessary. Guided by the principle that form should follow function, any substantive reform of international environmental governance will need to adequately reflect development concerns of individual countries within ecologically responsible limits.

- Last but not least, for Rio+20 to become a truly ground-breaking summit both the stakes and the pace of the preparatory process urgently need to be raised. This calls for strong political leadership!

To read the whole statement please visit GDI’s web page

While waiting for successful Rio+20 conference, our champion Augustin, is progressing in his efforts to protect 32 hectares of an endemic littoral forest from eradication. You can support him. Donate now!

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