Rio+20 - The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development

• Overview
• Background & Resources

Overview

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 20 to 22 June 2012.

Rio+20 was one of the biggest international gatherings of 2012, and the largest event in the history of the United Nations. It presented an opportunity to re-direct and re-energise political commitment to the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic growth, social improvement and environmental protection.

Rio+20 focused on two themes:

• A Green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication
• The institutional framework for sustainable development

At the culmination of the conference, United Nations Member States, including Australia, agreed the Future We Want outcomes document by consensus.

Outcomes

Two highlights of Rio+20 were an agreement to develop a set of global sustainable development goals (SDGs) and to establish a high-level political forum on sustainable development. The outcomes document discusses how the green economy can be used as a tool to achieve sustainable development; strengthens the United Nations Environment Programme, promotes corporate sustainability reporting measures and takes steps to go beyond gross domestic product to assess the well-being of a country.

The Future We Want also focuses on improving gender equity and recognises the important role Indigenous knowledge plays in sustainable development. The document calls for countries to strive to achieve a 'land degradation neutral' world (which will be implemented through the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification), to integrate planning and build sustainable cities and urban settlements (through assistance to local authorities), to strengthen risk assessments and to develop tools to reduce the risk of disasters.

Outcomes on Oceans

Rio+20 also produced a number of strong outcomes on oceans, including:

• To restore the health, productivity and resilience of oceans and marine ecosystems, and to maintain their biodiversity, enabling their conservation and sustainable use for present and future generations, and to effectively apply an ecosystem approach and the precautionary approach in oceans management.
• To take action on marine protected areas; to eliminate fisheries subsidies; to tackle marine pollution and alien invasive species and to address the challenges of sea level rise and coastal erosion, ocean acidification and the potential environmental impacts of ocean fertilisation.
• To take action to achieve significant reductions in marine debris by 2025, based on collected scientific data.
• To urgently take the measures necessary to maintain or restore all fisheries stocks at least to levels that can produce maximum sustainable yield and to urgently develop and implement science based management plans to achieve this.
• To eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing by developing and implementing national and regional action plans. This will be implemented under the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s international plan to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.