Environnement et Développement du Tiers-Monde • Environmental Development
Action in the Third Word - Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo en el Tercer-Mundo •
‫البيئة و‬
‫التنمية فى العالم الثالث‬
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ENDA TIERS MONDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ZERO DRAFT
Sustainable development, as a result of the first Earth Summit in 1992, was a
global collaborative project which bet to play on synergies between
globalization of trade, development and environment, with a background, a
change of development model in the North as well as in the South. It was based
on an initially homogeneous and even approach of the economic, social and
environmental aspects of development, the "three pillars". Sustainable
development meant to put an end to the rule of the liberal model, and of the
Economism which economic growth objective was taking precedence over all
the other components of development, in particular over its social and
environmental aspects.
 Item 27 Draft Zero: By introducing the concept of green economy, not
specifically defined as a set of binding rules but as a decision framework
(paragraph 27, zero draft), Rio + 20 restores the rule of the market with
rules that are even less strict than in the liberal market model which
opens the way to all the deregulations on the environmental, social and,
of course, economic aspect. Green economy is designed as a new
growth engine and an alternative to its deadlocks as well. In other words,
the zero draft questions calls the development approach based on the
"three pillars" of sustainable development. And yet the Zero Draft
completely denies the role of civil society and of the people by focusing
on the States and private sector
 We should much more focus on the approach of the "social contract" or
on the transformations as developed by the German Advisory Council on
Global Change ("World in transition, a social contract for sustainability".WBGU, Berlin, 2011). It means consider our future in the form of another
model of reference that integrates and involves, from the outset, all the
actors, stakeholders and affected populations. Therefore, we start from
the three pillars of sustainable development (economic, social and
environmental) and add to it, according to our approach, two additional
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criteria to fill the lack of comprehensiveness, when we stick to the three
traditional pillars. Those two criteria are technology and the institutional
(i.e. governance), last criterion found in the second part of the themes to
be addressed at Rio + 20. Why not include them now in an extended and
more accurate sustainable development approach.
 The liberal inspiration of document and its writing from the conceptual
and strategic reasoning of countries dominating the world economy is
palpable and should be corrected.
 The Zero Draft is far to be at the same level of requirements, pragmatism
and depth, in view of the seriousness and urgency of the challenges
(impoverishment, financial crisis, prices outbreaks, unemployment,
climate change, environmental disasters, etc.).
 In addition, the Zero Draft does not explicitly make the link with the
multilateral negotiations on the environment (Copenhagen, Durban) and
the (WTO) trade system and does not address the systemic problem and
the paradigmatic failure which hinder the world economy and generate
the degradation of the Earth's environment.
 We must engage the transformation of the current visions by initiating or
inventing sustainable development policies from the experiences already
developed in a number of countries, so that the fight against poverty,
against food insecurity, against climate change, etc. take shape as a
whole, consistent and sustainable. The great challenge related to the
population growth (doubling in Africa by 2050) is both to eliminate the
existing inequalities of access to services and to basic infrastructure,
and at the same time to respond to the same needs of new generations.
This requires, among other things, a radical change in the production
and consumption patterns, mainly in the countries of the North and an
endogenous development of these same patterns in the countries of the
South, particularly in Africa; all prospective development scenarios by
convergence of the North and the South are unanimous on this point.
The Zero Draft does not highlight those trends which should be the
reflection background.
 The Zero Draft relies on an inter-State logic and overshadows the
relationship of peoples and cultures with their resources and their
territories which are their modes of self control and of scale to which the
deepest transformations must occur. Local scales carry innovations and
experiences that are the closest to the realities and the planet will be
saved if only we acknowledge other models and the coexistence of
diverse models.
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 The Zero Draft makes no connection with the Copenhagen and Durban
negotiations, while both processes must lead to tangible and bold
actions affecting peoples and reversing negative trajectory of climate
change and social injustice.
 The Zero Draft does not take into account the reality of the bilateral
relationships and reports on CO2 which takes more and more
precedence on the multilateral reports. In addition, the debate during the
negotiations on the climate happen more between developed and
emerging countries, poor and African countries are kept in the margins
of the discussions, while they undergo the most significant impacts of
climate change.
 The few commitments on the financing of the transition to green
economy are too general and ignore that the former commitments are
not fulfilled and that the developed countries want to convert them into
commitments related to the environment and the climate.
Governance as a pillar of sustainable development
 Item 44: The dichotomous approach (item 44) between the green
economy on the one hand and the governance of the other hand
maintain a vision of society dislocated between the players, i.e. people,
and those who decide of the rules and of the functioning models of the
society. Therefore, we are at the stage where it is the concept of
sustainable development which must be strengthened by adding a fourth
criterion: governance. On which, we will assess the level of compliance
of the processes ranging from the economic to the political and of
convergence of policies and measures, etc.
 The Nation State on which the organization of a new governance of
sustainable development wants to lean on, implies the oppression of
peoples and resources grabbing to their detriment, However, local
governance must not, reproduce a model based on a power struggle but
on an economic-ecological approach; the importance local governance
derives from it. The Alternative green economy must be centered on the
human being and on local communities and avoid that the governance of
the CO2 market perpetuates relations of complicity between elites of the
North and of the South against their respective peoples. Alternative
green economy should thus allow the protection and the patenting of
genetic resources and traditional knowledge by the communities
involved and prohibit knowledge environmental resources hijacking.
 Any model of governance of goods and resources should be based on
the principles of SOLIDARITY, RESPONSIBILITY, MODERATION,
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PARTICIPATION and allow to value the popular and community
dynamics and experiences.
 Item 33: The International knowledge-sharing platform. This organization
should start from the existing (especially integrate local knowledge,
existing networks as Afrika Adapt and others) and not be a new structure
grabbed by elites and not accessible to the grassroots population.
 Furthermore, one wonders how the exchange of technologies and good
practices can occur in the midst of an economic war Items 32-36
between States and between multinational and that in this context,
innovations are protected to ensure the sustainability of the profits.
 Item 43 : For the monitoring of the implementation of the transition to the
green economy), the zero Draft proposes a period of 15 years only to set
up progress indicators, which seems excessive to us, given the urgency
of the commitment of all to the transformations.
 Item 62: The role of NGOs is never mentioned as an engine of change
before and after 2012, as shown here once again.
Proposals for new rights to promote with IBON
The Right of communities and peoples to the exploitation and the management
of their resources.
Right to access energy
Right to the land
Right to water
Right to knowledge and technology
Rights of living beings (plants, animals, biodiversity, etc.)
Legally binding systems to protect the environment and the shared goods of
humanity like water, oceans, food.
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