February 2011: An advance, unedited copy of the Report of the Secretary-General on the objectives and themes of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20) has been released by the UNCSD Secretariat.

The report, dated 20 December 2010 (A/CONF.216/7), is issued ahead of the UNCSD Preparatory Committee’s second session (PrepCom II), to be held from 7-8 March 2011, in New York, US. It was requested by the UN General Assembly (Resolution 64/236). According to the report, it is meant to be read in conjunction with the Synthesis Report.

The report considers how a focus on the two themes of the Conference (a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, and institutional framework for sustainable development, or IFSD) can: help accelerate progress on each of the three pillars of sustainable development, as well as on convergence among all pillars; and advance the objective of renewed political commitment to sustainable development.

On green economy, the report contains sections on a green economy’s contribution to economic growth; its possible impacts on poverty eradication; and its contribution to environmental objectives and challenges. On IFSD, the report contains sections on strengthening IFSD; the broader framework; governance of the environmental pillar of sustainable development; and governance of the other two pillars, economic and social development. The report concludes with a section on “the way forward.”

The report draws the following conclusions: countries at all levels of development have been implementing nationally tailored policies and programmes which are consistent with a green economy; a growing number of countries are experimenting with a more comprehensive re-framing of their national development strategies and policies along green economy lines, including as ‘low-carbon green growth’ strategies; their combined impact does not yet add up to changes in production and consumption patterns on a scale equal to the challenges; an early focus on “win-win” opportunities realizing significant short-term co-benefits can build confidence in and support for a green economy; whether countries derive poverty reduction benefits from their green economy efforts often depends on sustaining and deepening conventional social spending, on health, education and targeted income support for the poor; improved institutions are crucial to favorable social outcomes of green economy policies; moving towards a green economy is as much about structural change in the institutions governing economies at different levels as about technological change; the reach of the IFSD has expanded since the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, or the Rio Earth Summit), but lack of coordination and coherence has held back the full potential. The report notes that addressing this is now overdue and calls for member States to take an active role in providing political guidance to the UN system for overcoming the institutional fragmentation and lack of integration of the three pillars of sustainable development. [Publication: Report of the Secretary-General on the objectives and themes of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development]