It is too early to say whether the next UN "Earth Summit" in June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro (Rio+20) will be a success. But the official Rio+20 website now offers an interesting and useful snapshot of the expectations, perspectives, hopes and proposals of large segments of the international community.
In March, 2011, the second session of the Preparatory Committee of the Rio+20 Conference decided that governments, international agencies and "majors groups" (organizations representing all walks of "civil society") would have until 1st November to send to the UN their proposals for Rio+20. These would be included in a "compilation document" to be presented mid December, to form the basis of a "zero draft" document to be discussed at an intersessional meeting mid January in New York. Based on comments received on the "zero draft", a "first draft" of the conference's outcome document will be produced, and second, a third, etc. every month until the summit proper takes place in Rio at the end of June. (Click here to see the current schedule of meetings)
To date 642 submissions are available on the UN website: 73 from governments, 4 from political groups, 4 from regional groups, 493 from civil society organizations (including private sector organizations), and 68 from UN agencies and other intergovernmental organizations. The UN Secretariat has done a good job coping with a massive snowfall of submissions received in the days preceding the 1st of November deadline. They've included a search engine to help navigate with keywords into the numerous submissions.
Before this material is trimmed by the UN negotiating process and disappears from the website, it might be a good idea to save on a hard disk this wish list of the international community. For the record.
This blogpiece is also available in español, HERE (AQUÍ) on the website of the Spanish news agency EFE.
