18 January 2011: The UNCSD Secretariat has published highlights of four side events held during the first informal intersessional meeting of the Preparatory Committee for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20) on 10-11 January 2011, at UN Headquarters in New York, US.

An event titled “Introducing Business Action for Sustainable Development 2012” (BASD 2012) was convened by the UN Global Compact (UNGC), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). BASD 2012 is a temporary coalition established to coordinate business contributions to the UNCSD.

An event titled “Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development – Reforming Sustainable Development Governance” included the presentation of two papers, “Sustainable Development Governance toward Rio +20: Framing the Debate” by Jan-Gustave Strandenaes, and “Global Governance in the 21st Century: Rethinking the Environmental Pillar” by Maria Ivanova. A third presentation was given by Lalanath de Silva on enhanced implementation of Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration.

An event titled “One Planet Living at Rio+20” was hosted by BioRegional and considered the “one planet living” approach and 10 principles framework developed from BioRegional’s experiences as a way to plan, deliver, communicate and mainstream sustainable development and the green economy.

Finally, an event titled “A green economy that works for all: green jobs, decent work and sustainable investment” consisted of a panel discussion, during which panelists said moving towards a green economy entails adjusting to new patterns of natural resource use and conservation while also creating jobs to sustain livelihoods. The panel discussed various policies that address labor market adjustments and the need to generate new and sustainable sources of employment and income. [The Highlights]