Rio +20 Summit, a resounding and unsustainable failure

The sole decision of the conference was to postpone all decisions

Hollow speeches and declarations of good intentions. Thus ended the Rio +20, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development. After days of discussions, the summit comes to an end clearly denoting the utter inability of governments around the world in carrying forward an alternative to uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources. 

The “concern” of statesmen and diplomats in relation to the environment has proved to be a great hypocrisy in light of the extremely weak commitments. As long as capitalism continues to promote environmental savagery, the theater installed by the UN will not be able to provide answers not even with regard to the “green economy” or “sustainable development”.

Despite the enthusiastic speeches, the document signed by the 188 countries attending the Conference does not set any particular target to be achieved by the signatories. The text “The future we want” does not commit any government with any measure in its 53-pages of saluting the “sustainability” flag.

In theory, the so-called “ODS” –(acronym in Portuguese)-Objectives of Sustainable Development – shall be established in 2013 and presumably implemented as from 2015 onwards. The big decision of the Rio +20 was, therefore, to postpone decisions.

It could not be different however. Around the globe, governments are funded and companies and corporations’ allies, precisely those that most pollute and cause environmental damage of all kinds. Even being forced to give political answers to the growing environmental crisis, the major leaders of global capitalism cannot take measures against themselves.

Should we save the banks or the planet?

In addition the lack of goals, there is another revealing aspect of the hypocrisy of the conference. The proposal to compose a fund for financing policies in favor of the environment has been vetoed. The proposal comprised of the creation of a fund of US$ 30 billion a year, a modest amount if compared to what has been thrown to rescue the banks. Commenting on this controversy, the Brazilian ambassador Andre Correa do Lago acknowledged that “the crisis has influenced the Rio +20.”

{module Propaganda 30 anos}The historical refusal of the rich countries, precisely the largest polluters, in making commitments and allocating resources, even in favor of palliative and very incomplete policies, was reinforced by the context of the global economic crisis. Obama and Merkel not even attended the Conference. From the other members of the G7, only France has sent representatives. Apparently, for those governments to bail out banks is the most urgent demand.

Dilma turns the lights off

Responsible for the final speech of the event, Dilma struggled to shine a look of victory to the meeting. On the defensive, the President merely repeated that “the document we have approved does not bring any setback.” And using grandiloquence incongruent with the the hollow resolutions taken, she declared – yet – that “the document, ‘The future we want’, has now become a milestone in the overall results of the Conference.”

Anyway, it would be embarrassing for Dilma to conduct herself as an alternative to the Left within the Rio +20. The recent legacy of her administration, as regards the environment, such as the Forestry Code, transgenic and the privileges for agribusiness, would not allow Dilma to address the issue with less hypocrisy.

The artificiality of her speech was so great that it contrasted even with the statements of many of the heads of state present at the Conference. The European Union negotiators, for example, recognized that the final text was “unambitious” – an opportunistic criticism, as they also signed the document.

A struggle against capitalism

And thus the Rio +20 ended, in uncomfortable and forced smiles and generating very little expectation around it. It is a one more environmental Conference that makes it clear that if we rely on governments, humanity is condemned to barbarism.

So that the insatiable thirst for profit does not destroy even the conditions of human life on Earth, it must be increasingly clear that the struggle for preserving the environment is a struggle against capitalism. The only thing that this system has in store for us is longer and deeper aggression to the planet. Or, who knows? A new summit in 20 years from now.