World leaders kicked off a three-day summit on environment and poverty in Brazil yesterday to a warning from UN chief Ban Ki-moon that “time is not on our side” for fixing a mounting list of problems.
Mr Ban formally opened the Rio+20 summit on sustainable development which brings together 191 UN members, including 86 presidents and heads of government.
The high-profile event comes 20 years after Rio’s first Earth Summit when nations vowed to roll back climate change, desertification and species loss.
The summit was launched to a three-minute movie, ‘State of the Planet: Welcome to the Anthropocene’ that gave a visual trip through the dramatic changes in the environment since the Industrial Revolution.
The Anthropocene is the name given by many scientists for a new era in Earth’s history. It derives from Greek words to indicate the era of humans.
Summit participants then heard an appeal by Brittany Trilford, a 17-year-old student from New Zealand, challenging leaders to lay the foundation for a more sustainable world.
“I stand here with fire in my heart. I’m confused and angry at the state of the world. We are here to solve the problems that we have caused as a collective, to ensure that we have a future,” Ms Trilford, winner of the ‘Date with History’ youth video speech contest, said.
“I am here to fight for my future... I would like to end by asking you to consider why you are here and what you can do here. I would like you to ask yourselves: Are you here to save face? Or are you here to save us?”
A total of 191 speakers are expected to take the floor until tomorrow when the summit leaders are to give their seal of approval to a 53-page draft document agreed on by their negotiators Tuesday.
The draft outlines measures for tackling the planet’s many environmental ills and lifting billions out of poverty through policies that nurture rather than squander natural resources.
In his remarks, the UN secretary general praised Brazil, the summit host, for securing a deal on the summit’s final draft statement.
“I am pleased that negotiations have reached a successful conclusion... We are now in sight of a historic agreement,” the UN chief said.
“The world is watching to see if words will translate into action as we know they must. Rio+20 is not an end but a beginning. It’s time for all of us to think globally and long term, beginning here now in Rio, for time is not on our side,” he said.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who was elected president of the conference, said she had no doubt 'that we will be up to the challenges that the global situation imposes on us.'
As the summit got under way, eight multilateral development banks announced that they would set aside $175 billion to finance sustainable transport systems over the next decade.