"Rio 2012: Making it Happen" includes highlights from the North African Workshop on SCP, which focused on green building, and from the Sub-Saharan Africa Transport Policy Program's meeting in Rwanda.
It also notes that the European Commission has awarded UN DESA EUR350,000 to support Major Groups' participation in the UNCSD preparatory process and Conference itself.
17 February 2011: The third issue, volume two, of the UNCSD Secretariat’s biweekly newsletter, “Rio 2012: Making it Happen,” includes: highlights from the High-level Panel on Global Sustainability (GSP), the launch of the International Year of Forests, and the General Assembly’s thematic debate on disaster risk reduction; interagency news; updates on publications and the activities of Major Groups; and several upcoming events.
On the GSP, the newsletter notes the dates and location of the second meeting of the Panel: 24-25 February 2011, in Cape Town, South Africa.
The newsletter reports that the North American Workshop on Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP), which took place in Ottawa, Canada, from 31 January-1 February 2011, focused on green building as an application of international SCP efforts. Participants developed conclusions for consideration at the May 2011 meeting of the 19th session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD 19) and its agenda item on a 10‐year framework of programmes (10YFP) on SCP, as well as at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio 2012).
In addition, the Sub‐Saharan Africa Transport Policy Program (SSATP) convened a meeting of policymakers in Kigali, Rwanda, from 14-17 February 2011, to discuss intra‐Africa trade facilitation, regional integration and overall economic development, through improvement in transport transit corridors.
On Major Groups, the newsletter reports that the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) received EUR350,000 from the European Commission to ensure “representative, informed, enhanced and broadened participation of civil society representatives, including the private sector,” in the preparatory process and the Conference.
Finally, the newsletter highlights the 2010 update to the Sustainable Society Index (SSI) and a policy handbook for renewable energy for residential heating and cooling.
This issue also indicates that the name of this biweekly Newsletter has changed to “Rio 2012: Making it Happen,” following an agreement that, for media purposes, the United Nations Secretariat communications will also use the short title “Rio 2012” for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development. [Publication: Rio 2012: Making it Happen (Vol. 2, Issue 3)]
Postscript: In the 17 March 2011 issue, the title of the Newsletter had returned to its original title: “Rio +20: Making it Happen” [17 March 2011 issue]