Weak Declaration

After three very hectic day during the High Level moment at Rio +20 we are all exhausted. The Major Group for Children and Youth worked, as did national youth delagations, to ensure that the comments of the youth were included in the declaration without much success. The proposal to create an Ombudsperson for future generations has not been outright ignored, but neither is it emphasised in the document. We hope that a process can follow after Rio where the Major Group for Children and Youth for example, can push for this question.

The compromise text is a dissapointment. It is very weak and many proposals ffrom us, the youth, are not included. There is no supervisory body or mechanism that can secure implementation. Negotiators stress that we need to be happy that some sort of agreement has been reached, that a green economy is being talked about and that the Rio principles have been reaffirmed. Swedish negotiators express that the Commission on Sustainable Development that has been meeting every year since the 1992 Earth Summit needs to be replaced. This commission monitored the implementation of Agenda 21 and the Rio Principles. We are now expecting that a High Level Forum will be created to replace the commission. Follow the blog to read more about what this forum will do.

Marcus and Philip on mission cleaning up the world

Mangrove Cleaing

Alva Snis Sigtryggson från Fältbiologerna med Sofia

Discussions and work

As part of the largest group of participant, youth, I feel inspired by other youth delegates. There are so many wonderful initiatives around the world and I hope that we can find a way to promote all these intivatives more. Visibility would help us push for greater change. If all of us, every organisation that paticipated in Rio, go home and think twice about sustaianbility, then this conference has achieved something. Local changes can become global in character is for example all YMCAs and YWCAs start working with these questions. It is highly questionable if this can be considered a politicall successful process however.