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The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development—the 'Rio+20' Summit—took place in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012. Having previously reported on the preparations for the Summit, this report highlights the commitments for the UK from the conclusions agreed in Rio. We would have reported sooner, had it not been for our attempts, which ultimately proved unsuccessful, to give the Deputy Prime Minister an opportunity to provide evidence to us on his role before and after the Summit. It is regrettable that he declined to do so.
It is also regrettable that the Prime Minister did not attend the Rio+20 Summit. His absence undermined the Government's attempts to demonstrate its commitment to the sustainable development agenda, not just internationally but also at home in the UK.
The conclusions of the Summit itself disappointed many. There was a lack of concrete agreement on key areas of the agenda, notably on the green economy. The commitments from Rio+20 challenged the UK, like all countries, to do more to promote a green economy, but effectively left it to individual countries to decide how strongly to embrace green economy principles. While the Government says that it is committed to a green economy, it still has to demonstrate that by producing an overarching strategy that will actively drive its delivery.
On the other hand, many welcomed the firm commitment to develop new Sustainable Development Goals. The development of the SDGs and the Post-2015 Development Goals should, as the International Development Committee and the UN High Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda have recommended, be carried out jointly. The Prime Minister should take advantage of his position as co-chair of that High Level Panel to continue to push for integration of sustainable development targets with poverty eradication and climate change targets. The Government should set out its strategy for formulating the UK contribution to the design of the SDGs and the roles of particular departments in that process. It should engage businesses, NGOs, civil society groups and the wider public in developing a UK perspective on the desired design of the SDGs, to form the basis for the Government's engagement with the European Union and the UN in the lead up to 2015. The SDGs should ensure that development does not jeopardise 'planetary boundaries' by emphasising the importance of sustainable consumption and production.
Defra consulted with businesses and NGOs ahead of the Summit and brought some into the official delegation, but they were not an integral part of the process of formulating the Government's approach to the Rio agenda. The Government now needs to establish permanent mechanisms to continue that engagement with a wider range of NGOs and businesses.
At the Summit, the Government announced its decision to introduce mandatory emissions reporting for large UK-listed companies. The Government should now examine the scope for introducing wider-ranging 'sustainability reporting' for the private sector, along the lines already applied to its own departments. New Sustainable Development Indicators, which will complement such Government reporting, will reflect our call for emissions Indicators to be on a consumption (rather than just a production) basis.
The Summit included commitments on education for sustainable development. That requires education and training that reflects an understanding of sustainable development at all stages, from primary schools through to apprentice colleges and universities, as well as providing the skills needed for a green economy. The Government should remind schools of the scope for addressing sustainable development in their learning plans and encourage them to set themselves up as 'sustainable schools' to promote such learning through practical activities.
The Government should update the 2005 Sustainable Development Strategy, informed by the commitments and recommendations of Rio+20. It should also revisit its Aid Environment Strategy in light of the Rio+20 commitments, to include an explicit objective of promoting 'GDP-plus' metrics and natural capital accounting in aid-recipient countries, as well as private sector incentives to support a green economy. The Government should establish forums for engaging businesses, civil society, educators and the wider public in exploring the Rio+20 commitments for the UK and how the Government could take those forward. And the Government needs to set out a plan to bring its influence, and that of parliamentarians, to bear on the Rio commitments at the key staging-points towards agreeing the Post-2015 Development Goals.
We are producing another report, alongside this one, on our scrutiny of the Government's progress in embedding sustainable development in its own policies and programmes. The actions needed on both the global and domestic front to drive sustainable development complement one another and should be taken forward together.
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