Brazil, South Africa, India and China discuss climate change

Associated Press – Washington Post, 9/20/2012

Representatives of Brazil, South Africa, India and China are meeting to define a common position ahead of November’s United Nations’ climate change conference in Doha.

The four countries form the bloc known as BASIC that acts jointly in international climate change meetings.

Brazilian negotiator Luiz Alberto Figueiredo says one of the main topics being discussed in the meeting that ends on Friday is the future of the 1997 emission- limiting Kyoto Protocol that requires industrialized countries to slash emissions.

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Week in Review, 06/29/2012

Each Friday, through the Brazil Portal feature “The Week in Review”, the Brazil Institute will highlight Brazil’s news topics in one concise summary.

News this week has been dominated by continued concerns for Brazil’s ability to sustain economic growth. Issues of loan defaults  and slowing consumption have investors concerned about the viability of the Brazilian market. Some multi-national companies that thought they might profit from investment in Brazil have since pulled out owing to lack of profitability and an overcrowded market. The Brazilian government has responded with a spate of stimulus measures and interest rate cuts aimed at boosting spending and accelerating growth.

Talks of Brazil’s offshore oil holdings and the potential therein have been prominent in this week’s news. There are hopes that these large deposits could make the country a major oil exporter, though drilling is a very expensive and difficult process. The government recently slashed oil taxes in the hopes that cutting costs would better allow companies such as Petrobras to significantly increase their output.

The potential profits are certainly welcome as Brazil’s cities, especially Rio de Janeiro, need major infrastructure overhaul. The traffic and congestion during last week’s Rio +20 Conference provoked questions of whether or not Rio is ready to accommodate the masses it can expect in the upcoming 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games.

Also in the wake of that conference, environmental concerns continue to dominate headlines. This week in particular, Brazilian mining giant Vale has announced two green energy initiatives: a new biofuel plant in the Amazon and a partnership plant in Sudbury, Canada that will reduce emissions. Brazil’s decades-old Mining Code is also currently in the process of being overhauled; subsequently the government has clamped down on the issuance of mining permits, to the chagrin of many mining companies with a vested interest in the nation’s subterraneous resources.

U.N. sustainability summit ends with $513 billion in pledges

Kenneth R. Weiss – The Los Angeles Times, 06/22/2012

RIO DE JANEIRO — After days of quiet backroom dealing and soaring public rhetoric, global leaders on Friday approved a plan to bring clean water, sanitation and energy to the world’s poor without further degrading the planet.

The agreement, widely criticized for its watered-down ambitions, was overshadowed by a flurry of financial commitments and side deals announced at the three-day U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development.

Government leaders, bankers and corporate CEOs took advantage of the gathering of 50,000 people — the largest meeting in U.N. history — to announce new partnerships, programs and investments.

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Brazil’s Indians distrustful of mining bill

Joe Leahy – The Financial Times, 06/25/2012

Even as world leaders signed off on new commitments to sustainable development in Rio de Janeiro last week, Brazilian politicians were debating a bill that would open up the nation’s vast indigenous territories for mining.

The bill, under which miners would gain access to Indian lands in return for paying the indigenous owners a percentage of their profit, has angered native peoples already under intense pressure from loggers, ranchers and hydroelectricity companies.

“I have heard about this discussion; people talking about the legalisation of mining in indigenous territories,” Raoni Txucarramae, the 82-year-old chief of the Kayapo tribe, told the Financial Times. “I don’t accept that. I will continue to speak against this. I won’t accept money from mining, from logging, from dams.”

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China, Brazil play important role in reaching consensus at Rio+20: Brazilian diplomat

Xinhua Net, 06/22/2012

RIO DE JANEIRO, June 22 (Xinhua) — Developing countries like Brazil and China have played an important role in helping achieve consensus on sustainable development at a just wrapped-up UN conference, a Brazilian delegate said here Friday.

“Thanks to partners like China, we managed to reach an ambitious document, which preserved the main concerns of developing countries,” Andre Correa do Lago, Brazil’s chief negotiator to the conference, told Xinhua.

He referred to an agreed final document issued at the end of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20).

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Rio+20 and the World of Clarice

Paulo Sotero - *O Estado de Sao Paulo, 06/22/2012

The sense of frustration left by the low ambition of the Rio+20 United Nations Conference in Sustainable Development final document, especially among environmentalists, should surprise no one. The global economic crisis raging since 2008 put governments and the more established non-governmental organizations on the defensive and seriously limited what could be achieved long before President Dilma Rousseff opened the gathering of leaders on June 20^th. Not much should have been expected from an official gathering that President Barack Obama could not attend for fear of hurting his chances of reelection in November. The lack of significant progress in the implementation of the Climate Change and Biodiversity conventions adopted in the Rio Earth Summit of 1992 and the refusal of rich nations to consider setting up a $30 billion fund (a fraction of what they spend on security, defense and wars) to assist poor nations in the transition to the “green economy” proclaimed as goal by all severely limited what could be achieved.  “One should not ask for ambition in action where there is no ambition in financing,” said Brazilian chief-negotiator Luis Alberto Figueiredo Machado, responding to the UN secretary-general Ban Ki Moon, who at one point expressed his disappointment with the modesty of conference results.

Having participated in the UN Corporate Sustainability Forum held before the official gathering, I left Rio more hopeful about the future than the official part of Rio+20 would allow. As governments clearly fumbled in the face of the complex challenges of imagining and building a more equitable and sustainable economic growth model in the decades ahead, I saw senior business executives and leaders of civil society engaged in intelligent and productive dialogue about difficult issues at hundreds of thematic panels held at the Corporate Sustainability Forum and other sessions held in Rio.

In this sense, Rio+20 signaled a welcome change of dynamic in the public policy debate that may not be apparent but is substantive and potentially consequential.

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*An earlier version of this article appeared in Portuguese in the Brazilian daily “Estado de S. Paulo” on June 20, 2012.

Week in Review, 06/22/2012

Each Friday, through the Brazil Portal feature “The Week in Review”, the Brazil Institute will highlight Brazil’s news topics in one concise summary.

The nation was abuzz this week with news from Rio +20, the UN’s Conference on Sustainable Development. Among the 50,000 attendees, there was some optimism about the conference’s potential to impact change, however the general mood seemed to be one of pessimism and disappointment, especially from NGO delegations. Many of the complaints were about the weakness and ambiguity of the conference’s Final Document. However, despite many deeming the conference a failure, the delegates did bring many hot-button issues to the table, including the importance of women’s rights to the environmental movement and the promotion of corporate social responsibility. For all the news on Rio +20, check the Wilson’s Center’s Rio +20 page or follow the Brazil Portal’s Rio +20 Category.

Outside of the UN Conference, this week President Dilma Rousseff and other world leaders convened at the G20 Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico. For Brazil, the summit was evidence of the nation’s growing commitment to global concerns, as they and other developing nations stepped up to help the troubled Eurozone. In national news, a new and controversial Freedom of Information Law has been passed that President Rousseff hopes will increase transparency and cut down on corruption.

Rio+20 ending with weak text, emboldened observers

Paulo Prada and Valerie Valcovici - Reuters, 06/22/2012

(Reuters) – Global leaders were wrapping up a U.N. development summit on Friday with little to show but a lackluster agreement, leaving many attendees convinced that individuals and companies, rather than governments, must lead efforts to improve the environment.

Nearly 100 heads of state and government gathered over the past three days in efforts to establish “sustainable development goals,” a United Nations drive built around economic growth, the environment, and social inclusion. But a lack of consensus over those goals led to an agreement that even some signatories say lacks commitment, specifics, and measurable targets.

A series of much-hyped global summits on environmental policy have now fallen short of expectations, going back at least to a 2009 U.N. meeting in Copenhagen that ended in near-chaos. As a result, many ecologists, activists, and business leaders are coming to the conclusion that progress on environmental issues must be made locally with the private sector, and without the help of international accords.

Brazil and China sign trade agreements

The New York Times/Reuters, 06/22/2012

RIO DE JANEIRO — Leaders of Brazil and China signed trade agreements aimed at increasing investment and trade flows at a time when economic growth in both nations is losing momentum.

President Dilma V. Rousseff of Brazil and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China agreed on a common agenda of investments in the mining, industrial, aviation and infrastructure sectors to encourage commerce between the two nations.

Ms. Rousseff and Mr. Wen, who is in Brazil to attend Rio+20, the sustainable development summit meeting sponsored by the United Nations, signed the agreements Thursday. Relations between the nations will be accorded the status of a “global strategic partnership,” highlighting their growing influence in the global economy.

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SK Chairman suggests creating Global Action Hub, comprehensive social enterprise platform connecting the entire world

Business Wire, 06/18/2012

On Monday, Chey Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group, proposed concrete plans to invigorate global social enterprise at the Rio+20 Forum held in Brazil on the 18^th. He suggested “creating the Global Action Hub, the IT platform where the building blocks of social enterprise can be exchanged” to solve the social ills, striking a chord with about 2,500 experts at the forum.

Delivering a speech at the Closing Plenary Session of the Rio +20 Corporate Sustainability Forum, Chairman Chey underscored the importance of creating “an ecosystem for autonomous development of social enterprise” as prerequisite to bolster social enterprise.

Chey emphasized that the Global Action Hub is not just a simple IT platform but a comprehensive one where investors, experts and social entrepreneurs would join forces for networking, information exchange to further enhance positive effects by social enterprise. In other words, SK’s vision is to build a single international social enterprise portal, connecting the entire world.

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