The “Rio plus 20” summit being held on 20-22 June 2012 provides an opportunity to launch a process for forging a new global compact, underpinned by greater equity and policy space for the developing countries, for dealing with sustainable development in an integrated and holistic fashion, and for moving away from the ‘silo’-mentality. The concept of a ‘Green economy’ has become contentious, with the protagonists failing to elaborate its content and allay fears, and instead, arousing suspicions of disguised protectionism and conditionalities. Developing countries have fallen short in shaping the concept of ‘green economy’ according to their own interests and concerns.

Socio-economic development and poverty eradication continue to be the first and over-riding priorities of the developing countries. The imperative of international co-operation should be reflected in the proposed compact, and given renewed impetus by suggesting practical measures for advancing it. The approach should reaffirm the principles and continued relevance of Agenda 21 adopted at the 1992 Earth summit. The new compact should seek to operationalise the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities. It should adopt innovative approaches and make extensive use of the new information and communication technologies (ICTs). It should factor in the current international economic environment and address the challenges of sustained growth confronted by global economy, especially by the developing countries.

Developing countries have witnessed a massive expansion in the challenges facing them in the past two decades. Consequently, the policy space available to them for adapting to these rapid changes and providing safety nets to the vulnerable sections of their populations has been constantly shrinking, exacerbating tensions within their own societies and widening the North-South gap.`

The recommendations from the Rio plus 20 conference include:

research and academic institutions should be encouraged to undertake work that would help operationalise the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR), rather than merely paying lip-service to them
a process for developing indicators and benchmarks to evaluate implementation, including those for international obligations and commitments, and capacity-building should be in place
the post-summit work needs to be carried out by an open-ended inter-governmental committee (IGC) with technical inputs from the UN secretariat as necessary
India and other developing countries should ensure that the IGC is given a clear and unambiguous mandate to develop, elaborate and submit to the 69th session of the UN General Assembly in September 2014 specific recommendations