Rio+20: Protest Against ‘The Future Corporations Bought’

Rio de Janairo (Brazil), June 22, 2012 –  Friends of the Earth International  delegates joined on June 21 a key protest by a group of young people and civil society organisations denouncing world leaders’ failure to tackle the planetary crisis at the UN Rio+20 Summit.

Hundreds of people condemned the failed Rio+20 Summit process as “the future corporations bought, first sitting down at the entrance of the Rio+20 Summit and then tearing up copies of the Ri~20 Summit text. They later walked out of the conference centre, handing in their badges, and chanting 'the  future we want is not here'.

The protestors said that the voices of people and in particular the young people are being ignored at this UN Summit in the interest of corporations that continue to promote a business-as-usual model based upon dirty fossil fuels, and social and environmental exploitation.

Rio+ 20 final deal has no gains due to corporate lobby

19^th June 2012, Rio de Janeiro, The new and final text entitles "The Future We Want" out at the Rio+20 negotiation shows that the new deal does nothing to address the environmental and social crises the world is facing nor does it tackle in any way the structural causes of the economic crises we are facing. 

This failure by our governments to respond to people’s needs and benefits only the corporate polluters that hold UN decision-making hostage to further their economic interests.

The deal does not prevent countries from selling out nature to multinational corporations, nor does it include any measures to hold corporations accountable for their negative impacts.

This text is does not provide any new financial commitment and no technology transfer to developing countries. While the so called “Green Economy” does not have the prominent role that some would have wished to see in this declaration, and this is a victory for all those opposed to the destructive Green Economy agenda promoted by industrialized countries and multinational corporations.

Some industrialized countries tried to delete the Rio Principles agreed 20 years ago from the Summit declaration but fortunately their attempt failed.

The text promotes mining, which is a serious environmental destruction to the environment. Further, it requests the Members of the WTO to redouble their efforts to achieve an ambitious, balanced and development-oriented conclusion to the Doha Development Agenda.