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UNCSD report back from the first round of negotiations on the zero draft document, New York, January 27th-30th 2012:

Three days of initial negotiations over the proposed outcome document for Rio+20 concluded today with comments and suggestions from Member States, United Nations agencies and a variety of civil society actors. 
 
Speaking on the final day of the consultations, Rio+20 Secretary-General Sha Zukang said, “It is encouraging that the zero draft is viewed as a starting point for negotiations. We will need to keep up a brisk pace if we are to complete negotiations in a timely manner.” He added, “We must present to the world leaders and, indeed, to the world’s people, an outcome that will make a difference in our shared undertaking to achieve a sustainable future – a future we all want.” 
 
This informal round is the first of four more negotiating sessions in March, April/May and June in the lead-up to Rio+20 – the UN Conference on Sustainable Development to be held in Brazil on 20-22 June this year. 
 
In his closing statement, Mr. Sha said that governments must make the draft ambitious and action-oriented, as many of them had emphasised, and ensure accountability. “We must not go home from Rio and forget our commitments the next day,” he said, adding that a mechanism to ensure genuine delivery of commitments must be spelt out in the outcome document. We need “decisions that show the world we mean business, but not business as usual,” he noted.

The zero draft was condensed from more than 6,000 pages of submissions from Member States, international organizations and civil society groups in an open, transparent and inclusive process spanning months.Based on the three days of comments and suggestions, Mr. Sha presented a short list of “must haves” for Rio+20.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), he said, could be one of the important contributions of Rio+20. He added that at the very least, by 2015, SDGs should be defined with a clear timeframe and give clear direction to build green economies appropriate to national circumstances. A robust framework of action was needed to achieve the SDGs, Mr. Sha said. This included mobilising finance from all sources; technology cooperation and transfer; capacity building; engaging all stakeholders in implementation, including through innovative partnerships; and putting science, education and innovation in the service of sustainable development.

At the Rio+20 conference, coming twenty years after the landmark 1992 Earth Summit, world leaders, along with thousands of participants from the private sector and non-governmental groups, are expected to come together to shape ways to reduce poverty, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection on an ever more crowded planet.

For more information on the Rio+20 Conference, visit: www.uncsd2012.org 

To read Soroptimist International's response to the Rio+20 Zero Draft Document, click here.