27 March 2012: Delegates resumed their discussions on the outcome document for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20) during back-to-back meetings from 19-27 March 2012, at UN Headquarters in New York, US.

The first “informal informal” consultations to negotiate the draft outcome document took place from 19-23 March, followed by the Third Intersessional Meeting, which took place from 26-27 March.

Negotiations were based on the “zero draft,” which was developed by the Co-Chairs and Bureau of the UNCSD Preparatory Committee. Titled “The Future We Want,” the document was released on 10 January 2012. The draft incorporated the input received by the UNCSD Secretariat from member States and other stakeholders by 1 November 2011 (referred to as the “compilation document”), as well as comments offered during the Second Intersessional Meeting of the UNCSD held from 15-16 December 2011. The first and second readings of the first two sections of the zero draft (the Preamble/Stage Setting and Renewing Political Commitment Sections) were conducted during a three-day session in January. Written comments on the remaining three sections—Green Economy in the Context of Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication, Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development (IFSD), and Framework for Action and Follow-up—were submitted and compiled by the Secretariat into a draft that was used for negotiations during the March UNCSD meetings.

During the March meetings, delegations discussed additional amendments and responded to other delegations’ amendments on most of the text. The first reading of the sections on the green economy, institutional framework and framework for action took place during the week-long informal informal consultations. A second reading of these three sections, along with a third reading of the Preamble and most of the Renewing Political Commitment sections, was conducted during the two-day intersessional meeting.

While Major Group representatives and some delegations bemoaned the large number of brackets placed around various textual amendments, many noted that the real decisions on whether specific text will remain in the outcome document and in what format it will appear will begin during the next round of informal informal consultations. [IISD RS Coverage of the Meetings]