This side event considered the Sustainable Development Dialogues, which will be hosted by Brazil during the Rio+20 Conference.

Julio Bitelli, Minister-Counselor, Brazil, noted the large interest in the proposed sustainable development goals. He explained the Brazilian Government’s effort to provide a space for civil society to discuss the major issues on the sustainable development agenda, including: sustainable development, as an answer to the current economic and financial crises; poverty alleviation; water; oceans; forests; sustainable energy for all; food and nutrition security; the economics of sustainable development; sustainable cities and innovation; and unemployment, decent work and migration.

Together with Brice Lalonde, Rio+20 Executive Coordinator, he outlined some of the logistics and responded to questions regarding the proposed facilitation process. Bitelli said that a ten-member team will be assigned to each topic, the members of which will be selected by the Brazilian Government, assisted by the Rio+20 Executive Coordinators and the UN. He pledged equal gender and geographic representation in these teams, saying that the major organizations at the UN will send proposals of candidates to the Brazilian Government. On the outcome of the civil society discussions, he said a set of recommendations will be submitted to the High-Level Roundtable sessions to be held at Rio+20.

Mitchell Toomey, UNDP, presented the practicalities of the platform, which will take the form of a virtual dialogue on the internet whereby civil society can participate in voicing recommendations and vote for preferences on each of the ten topics.

During the discussions, participants addressed: the physical arrangements of the venue; how to ensure representation from each country; audience composition; selection of participants and topics; possible overlaps with other side events; and other logistical concerns.

This side event deliberated on the outcomes of GEO-5, which provided an analysis of the successes and failures of the world’s implementation of the internationally agreed environmental goals.

John Matuszak, US Department of State, reflected on the differences between GEO-5 and previous reports, noting that there was engagement from both the political and scientific community when drafting the SPM. He outlined the report, which focuses on the status and trends of the global environment in terms of key goals, policies undertaken by governments to implement these goals, and additional actions and drivers that might influence the ability to meet these goals.

Jorge Laguna-Celis, Permanent Mission of Mexico to the UN, spoke on the key messages of the GEO-5 report, inter alia, that: internationally agreed goals have only been partially met; there is continued deterioration of the global environment, noting that some critical thresholds have already been exceeded; lack of data remains a major barrier; there is a need to shift the policy focus; and solving environmental problems with environmental policies remains a fallacy.

Marc Levy, Columbia University, lamented: the 36% rise in global emissions, with 80% of emissions being emitted by only 19 countries; the steady decline of Arctic sea ice as well as forests; and the major long-term environmental impacts of persistent pollution.

Daniel Ziegerer, Swiss Federal Office for the Environment, highlighted some innovations, including the formally negotiated SPM, which strengthened the science-policy interface, and the addition of important new themes to the GEO process.

Jose Almonte, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, Dominican Republic, underscored the relationship between poverty and environmental crises, with poverty as a driver of environmental change.

John Matuszak, emphasizing that policymaking requires more reliable data, said for 14 goals no data existed, and insufficient data existed for approximately 80% of the remaining goals.

Participants deliberated on: shifting the policy focus to include non-environmental issues; integrating the many different sustainable development policies and programmes; incorporating solutions such as resilience to climate and disaster; and data integration of existing information and indicators, combined in novel ways.