Tag Archives: Rio+20 summit

Mary Reid

LibLink: Paddy Ashdown – Silver Linings to the Storm Clouds of Rio

By Mary Reid | Tue 26th June 2012 - 6:06 pm

Last week we linked to an article by former party leader Paddy Ashdown headed “Rio+20 is a chance to secure our children’s future“.

Over on Huffington Post he has now given his assessment of the summit.

 … as the summit reached its conclusion on Friday criticism from environment groups, charities working on poverty issues and the mainstream media over the strength of the agreement was becoming louder.

And yet the news coming from Rio has not been all bad. Indeed, some positive outcomes have emerged from

…

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Nick Clegg MP

Nick Clegg MP writes… Rio+20: We made progress

By Nick Clegg MP | Tue 26th June 2012 - 9:53 am

The dust has now settled on last week’s Rio+20 summit and I’m keen to look back at my initial goals and to let you know what we achieved in terms of meeting them. Of course the final text was not all we would have wanted had we been able to write it ourselves; however I am pleased to be able to report that all three of my priorities have been included in the final text of the document that was agreed last week.

  1. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We agreed to launch a process to develop these, to ensure that countries

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 7 Comments
Nick T

LibLink: Paddy Ashdown – Rio+20 is a chance to secure our children’s future

By Nick T | Thu 21st June 2012 - 6:54 pm

Paddy Ashdown – former Lib Dem leader and president of Unicef UK – has an op-ed in the Daily Telegraph setting out his hopes for the Rio+20 summit currently taking. Here’s a sample:

Right now an estimated 18 million people in the Sahel region of west Africa are being affected by drought, disease and conflict. In 2011 alone UNICEF, the world’s leading children’s organisation, responded to 292 humanitarian emergencies in 80 countries. Children are always the most vulnerable in such situations, typically representing over 50 per cent of those affected by disasters, equating to between 100 and 175 million children each

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Ben Wood

Opinion: 3 reasons why the Earth Summit matters for Liberal Democrats

By Ben Wood | Thu 21st June 2012 - 12:26 pm

In mid-June 1992, over one hundred heads of state came together in Rio de Janeiro to establish groundbreaking and legally binding agreements which put sustainable development on the global agenda and urged the world to start living within its means.

Twenty years on, sustainable development appears to have lost its way. The global financial crisis and ongoing problems in the Eurozone have led some (including many in the Conservative Party) to turn a blind eye to environmental issues.

Such has been the lack of media coverage, in fact, that you could be forgiven for failing to realise that this week’s Earth Summit, …

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Caron Lindsay

Liblink: Nick Clegg – Rio’s reprise must set hard deadlines for development

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 20th June 2012 - 12:58 pm

Liberal Democrat leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has written for the Guardian about the Rio+20 summit he’s attending. He says that it’s vital that we “revive the spirit of our predecessors to get the world on a much more sustainable path”.

He spelled out the consequences if we don’t act:

Too many people still lack food: tonight, one billion will go hungry. There isn’t enough clean energy: right now women in some of the poorest communities are fuelling their homes with tyres and plastics. Despite the noxious fumes produced, they rely on anything that will burn. Dirty water and poor

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Joel Kenrick

Opinion: We can kick start the economy… and might just save the planet too

By Joel Kenrick | Tue 19th June 2012 - 8:45 am

With all eyes on the elections in Greece and the future of the Eurozone, the Earth Summit in Rio is unlikely to be headline news. But it should be. As Nick Clegg wrote on LDV last week 'sustainability and growth go hand in hand, and it's for us as Liberal Democrats to make that case loud and clear.'

As Liberal Democrats we have been making the case for decades, and over the last two years Liberal Democrat Cabinet Ministers have been forceful advocates around the Cabinet table and around the world. We may know that tackling climate change is essential ...

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Nick Clegg MP

Nick Clegg MP writes… Rio+20 should set the green agenda for the next 20 years

By Nick Clegg MP | Fri 15th June 2012 - 12:05 pm

Next week, representatives from 190 countries will meet to discuss how we build a green economy that reduces poverty without destroying the environment. These issues have been close to my heart since I wrote a postgraduate thesis on the “Deep Green” movement and humans’ effect on the environment over twenty years ago. But their importance for future generations has been brought home tenfold to me since becoming a father, and I am proud that I will be leading the UK delegation at the Rio Summit.

At the original Earth Summit in 1992, against the backdrop of Brazil’s disappearing Amazon …

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Adam Corlett

Opinion: If Cameron won’t attend Rio+20 then Clegg should

By Adam Corlett | Fri 20th January 2012 - 8:48 am

The Rio ‘Earth’ Summit in 1992 was the “world’s biggest ever political gathering” with 108 heads of state or government. Its successes and failures on the environment and development continue to shape those debates.

In June, Rio de Janeiro will host the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, a.k.a. Rio+20. A very early draft document suggests it will cover a wide range of topics, including access to food, water and energy; marine litter and pollution; eliminating “market distorting and environmentally harmful subsidies including those on fossil fuels, agriculture and fisheries” (I’ll believe it when I see …

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