Rio+20 blog

As I write, things inside Rio Centro, where the Rio+20 talks are taking place look bleak. Last Friday, after three long days of ‘preparatory committee’ meetings countries were unable to agree little more than a third of the draft outcome text. The decision was made for the UN to hand responsibility for drafting of a new version of the text to Brazil, as the host country, in the hope of finding a common pathway forward.

EU plans to promote the replacement of fossil fuels with biomass at the Rio+20 Earth Summit could lead to hunger and environmental devastation, according to a report released today by the World Development Movement and the Transnational Institute.

The report, ‘Bio-economies: the EU’s real ‘Green Economy’ agenda’, condemns the EU’s bio-economy vision as “a tantalising mirage, promising a green future but likely to deliver a parched and arid reality”.

I arrived into Rio late last night, and headed straight to the small apartment that is to be home for the next ten days. Sarah, fellow WDMer had landed a few hours before, and already orientated herself around the city and had plenty of information to share. Whilst we are here, Sarah will be spending her days at the People’s Summit coordinating with social movements, participating in actions and discussing alternatives to the false solutions that are being proposed at the official summit, and I will be following what’s going on inside the Rio+20 conference (officially known as the UN Conference on Sustainable Development).

On Tuesday 12 June a Mozambican journalist was deported from Brazil and thus barred from attending the Rio +20 summit. Jeremiah Vunjanhe is a journalist by profession and works for the Mozambican organisation: Justiça Ambiental (JA!, Environmental Justice). He is also a member of Friends of the Earth Mozambique.