rio 20

Just days after the historic blackout reminded us that centralized coal is the problem, not the solution to India’s energy woes, a new era of entrepreneurs marked the beginning of a truly revolutionary effort to deliver energy access.The landmark deal that marked their arrival was lost amidst the coverage of the blackout and the...[read more]

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Politicians, bureaucrats and scientists from around the world met in Brazil this summer for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. Many attendees called for greater government control over our economic lives in order to preserve more of earth’s resources for future generations.Sadly, their efforts are sorely...[read more]

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Since returning from Rio, I have already participated in a number of debriefings about the Rio+20 Earth Summit. I am pleased to see the interest, but dismayed to find many people have already accepted the message that the Summit had been a “flop” or a “failure.” Focused on the conference’s uninspired “outcome document,” most observers...[read more]

To really understand how much Canada - and the world - has changed, its worth comparing the Canadian government summary of the original 1992 Earth Summit to its submission to the 20th anniversary summit held in Rio last week. I looked through these a few days ago while preparing some thoughts for CBC Radio's BC Almanac discussion of...[read more]

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The dust is still settling on the recent United Nation’s Rio+20 environmental summit, and reactions range from disappointment at the lack of national governmental consensus to optimism at the range and success of local governmental and corporate actions.  None of this alters the fact that climate change is a slow-moving disaster...[read more]

Photo by Blog do Planalto/Flickr

Delegates gathered this week in Rio de Janeiro at the 20th anniversary of the historic Earth Summit  affirmed that climate change “requires urgent and ambitious action,” in an agreement that commits them to no new steps toward meeting that goal. But while nations are as far as ever from putting a global price on carbon emissions,...[read more]

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This week, much of the globe’s attention is focused on the United Nation’s Rio +20 Earth Summit, where thousands of international delegates and NGO representatives are gathering to hammer out solutions to an increasingly stressed out, warmed-up world.As the slow-burn of climate change spreads across the four corners of the globe,...[read more]

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"Rio +20 is occurring as we enter a phase of planetary emergency - we've recently surpassed 400 ppm in the Arctic, biodiversity loss is occurring at an exponential pace and global warming is magnifying global abnormal weather conditions. The political will to be proactive about these conditions seems to have evaporated. So how do we...[read more]

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For advocates of all things “green”, the Rio+20 Summit is supposed to charter a new path forward for the world to address its biggest challenges: reduce greenhouse gas emissions, eradicate poverty, end hunger, limit environmental destruction and increase access to clean water. But like recent climate change negotiations, the conference will result in little more than vague frameworks.[read more]

As Rio+20 negotiators rush to complete a consolidated text of outcomes before heads of state begin arriving tomorrow, participants at hundreds of side events are calling on business and government to take stronger action on clean energy, poverty elimination, food security, oceans, sustainable cities, green technology development,...[read more]

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Something crucial was missing from the first-ever global inventory of tax breaks for oil companies and other fossil-fuel subsidies when the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development released it last fall. The report detailed all the subtle and not-so-subtle supports for production and consumption of oil,...[read more]

As the world converges in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest sustainability conference of the year, the Rio+20, twitter activity is booming. One of the most popular hashtags today was #endfossilfuelsubsidies, which aims to end subsidies for fossil fuel energy. A sustainable future must hinge on alternative energy, such as solar and wind...[read more]

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One of the centerpieces of this month’s Rio+20 summit is an important initiative called Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All). C2ES is pleased to be contributing to this initiative as a founding member of a new global partnership aimed at improving energy efficiency and curbing greenhouse gas emissions through the use of information...[read more]

NRDC has been calling for the Rio+20 Earth Summit to be a different type of international meeting – one where our world leaders act, and not just talk. On Friday, Mexican president Calderón set the stage for Rio with the rejection of a controversial and destructive tourism development project on the Baja California coast. This is...[read more]

The Group of 20 developed and developing nations will meet Monday in Los Cabos, Mexico, for their seventh meeting since the initial G-20 summit in November 2008, hosted by the George W. Bush administration in Washington, D.C. What will be the role of climate and energy issues at this latest summit?This is an especially intriguing...[read more]