Rio+20 has produced ‘The Future we want’: a document that shows a complete lack of urgency and political leadership. ANPED launched a petition ‘The Future we DONT want’ that already has more than 2000 signatures from individuals and organizations all over the world.

The document reflects short-term national agenda’s and makes no mention at all of planetary boundaries. The neo-liberal economic growth model is still the dominant paradigm – even though science says that this is not compatible with sustainability. Despite our campaign to embrace social and environmental justice, none of that was discussed. This was a great summit for the large corporations as resource use caps or sufficiency were off the table. This means that our ecological debt will accumulate further.

A reform of UN institutions is urgently needed as they are currently co-financed by multinationals, apparently making ambitious commitments extremely difficult. Civil society proposals fall into deaf ears.

The decision to make a move from MDGs to SDGs – however weak it is defined – could be seen as some progress in the way of thinking. It shifts attention from poor countries to rich countries, where the real problems originate. But this is a low hanging fruit. We support the few governments that came to Rio to resist the commodification of nature, the Peoples’ summit and the Peoples’ Sustainability Treaties. The latter process culminated in a manifesto that urges for equity – localizing our economies and a global citizens movement.

ANPED – as international NGO network – is very active in this global citizens movement. We work for environmental justice, in the resource cap coalition, in the great transition initiative, on sustainable lifestyles and in anything that moves us towards strong sustainability.

For more information: www.anped.org