Rio+20 a talkshop

The Rio+20 summit which is currently underway in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil comes at a crucial time when the world economy is in such a mess. It's two-pronged theme: "A Green Economy in the Context of Sustainable Development (Poverty Eradication) and the Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development" puts 'rich' countries in a tight and paradoxial position. With fiscal consolidation the norm, governments are finding themselves with scarce resources for use in sustainable development and also alternative green energy isn't "cheaper" than the fossils favoured by the big energy companies. Paradoxial in the sense that if you analyse the cheap talk by western governments and ideologues on how urgent it is to be fiscally responsible now to provide a great future for generations to come in terms of good growth rates and development but they can't fathom an investment today to provide a sustainable future for all because unless something is done today on the environment the current fiscal responsibility stunts will not bear expected results. This is because the negative externalities of environment degredation will counter the economic development promised by austerity models.

The US and company aren't taking this issue seriously as evident by the notable absenteeism of Barack Obama and key western leaders. This ensures that the Rio+20 summit becomes a talkshop for world leaders because the resolutions of the conference aren't binding at all. So it is important that renewed efforts must be taken to make sustainable development issues come back to the top of the discussion table of world leaders.