Post by Loubna Sadiki
The Earth Charter International side event that took place on June 17th, entitled "An Ethical Framework for Global Governnance" had an aim to have an open discussion about how important it is to agree on common ethical principles for a global governance system for sustainability.
The first speaker, Mr. Bosselman, started by explaining that
he noticed that there is an increasing gap between civil society and governance
by showing a graph that displays this gap from 1996 to 2012. He explained
that since the cold war, this gap was widened due to an increase of capitalism that led to the
decrease of sustainable environment practices. He also pointed out that neoliberalism
had a peak after the Johannesburg conference in 2002 where it was the emphasis
of partnership between the government and the corporations that have resulted
nowadays to a decrease of green practices.
Later, he explained the concept of Global Commons. He defined it as a public good (when we look at it from a global perspective); It's everything we share and have in common. He stressed that about 200 years ago, in the European Union, the government agreed that no land has to be sold to anyone because it is inherited and passed to the future generations.
The second part of the speech was presented by the Mr. Rubens and Mr. Liknotal. Mr. Rubens said that ''We should act on both local and international environmental levels.'' He added that as representatives of civil society, we should be able to act on all levels, and not have to choose between the government and civil society. He emphasized that we need instruments for global governance.
Mr. Liknotal then talked more about what kind of change we really need nowadays in regards to major environmental issues. He stressed on having values and spiritual values, ''without them we are doomed.'' This made me think about how relevant the Earth Charter is to helping to providing a values based framework that can guide us to more sustainable ways of living. The speech ended with Mr. Liknotal expressing his discouragement about the new agenda for Rio+ 20; he explained that the discussions on the environment and sustainability don't touch the real problems that we are facing such as water and deforestation but focus only on the green economy.
The Earth Charter International side event that took place on June 17th, entitled "An Ethical Framework for Global Governnance" had an aim to have an open discussion about how important it is to agree on common ethical principles for a global governance system for sustainability.
Later, he explained the concept of Global Commons. He defined it as a public good (when we look at it from a global perspective); It's everything we share and have in common. He stressed that about 200 years ago, in the European Union, the government agreed that no land has to be sold to anyone because it is inherited and passed to the future generations.
The second part of the speech was presented by the Mr. Rubens and Mr. Liknotal. Mr. Rubens said that ''We should act on both local and international environmental levels.'' He added that as representatives of civil society, we should be able to act on all levels, and not have to choose between the government and civil society. He emphasized that we need instruments for global governance.
Mr. Liknotal then talked more about what kind of change we really need nowadays in regards to major environmental issues. He stressed on having values and spiritual values, ''without them we are doomed.'' This made me think about how relevant the Earth Charter is to helping to providing a values based framework that can guide us to more sustainable ways of living. The speech ended with Mr. Liknotal expressing his discouragement about the new agenda for Rio+ 20; he explained that the discussions on the environment and sustainability don't touch the real problems that we are facing such as water and deforestation but focus only on the green economy.
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