Can Rio deliver this time round?

Andrew Sheng, president of the Fung Global Institute, is right in asserting that academics often propose good ideas for change while dealing with the core values of sustainable development. Significant academic contributions are reflected in the draft International Covenant on the Environment and Development, circulated by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. This document sets forth a fundamental principle according to which the right to sustainable development is universal and inalienable and entails the obligation to meet the environmental, as well as social and economic needs of humanity in a sustainable and equitable manner.

A legitimate hope can be expressed that the 10 Asean member states will actively promote the universality of the right to sustainable development during the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June – twenty years after the first, memorable 1992 Earth Summit in the same city. The “Rio+20” Conference offers an exceptional opportunity to formulate consensus solutions on how to give tangibility to the right to sustainable development at the national, regional and global levels.

Ioan Voicu

Bangkok