8 August 2011: The Brookings Institution has published a piece by William Brown that offers nine recommendations for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20).

Asserting that the current financial and political climate is a “bear-trap for action,” attributing this in particular to the US, and noting that the Report of the UN Secretary-General for the Conference offers little guidance for action, the opinion piece by William Brown lists nine actions to advance environmental quality. The recommendations focus on education, research and infrastructure, which the author says can set longer-term directions than specific policies.

The nine recommendations for the UNCSD are to: commission a new, independent, credible assessment of environmental status and trends; agree to develop common measures for monitoring status and trends in environmental quality; establish a new organizational framework for international environmental leadership; agree that national governments will take steps to redress any demonstrated degradation in environmental quality and upload a description of those measures to the UN website; agree to launch a global initiative to freeze and preserve the DNA and viable tissue of all known species and new species as they are discovered; agree to promote and invest in science and cultural education for environmental quality by funding educational programs of environmental agencies; agree to promote and invest in education for women; agree to invest in the conduct and dissemination of research and the recruitment of talent applied to environmental quality; and agree to develop and invest in physical and regulatory infrastructure promoting environmental quality. [Brookings Institution Opinion Piece]