Cientistas não se veem representados no documento da Rio+20

O portal SciDev fez um
balanço do resultado da conferência e ouviu a opinião de representantes de
entidades científicas, entre eles a presidente da SBPC, Helena Nader.
Um documento não-detalhado, que não prima pela urgência em enfrentar as
ameaças ao planeta nem valoriza o conhecimento científico como forma de alcançar
o desenvolvimento sustentável. Essas foram algumas críticas que cientistas
fizeram ao texto 'O Futuro que Queremos', resultado da Conferência das Nações
Unidas sobre o Desenvolvimento Sustentável - Rio+20, que terminou na última
sexta-feira (22).

Helena Nader, presidente da Sociedade Brasileira para o Progresso da Ciência
(SBPC), se diz "desapontada" e afirma que o documento de 53 páginas é "fraco,
sem foco e não preenche lacunas importantes". Ela classifica o texto como "um
passo para trás" e diz que ele não reflete o enorme trabalho investido nele.

"A ciência praticamente inexiste no texto", lamenta Helena. "Simplesmente não
compreendemos por que o documento não tem uma seção dedicada à ciência. Essa
ausência é uma mensagem lamentável à comunidade científica e seus investidores",
completa Steven Wilson, diretor executivo do International Council for Science
(ICSU).

Contudo, a avaliação do SciDev lembra que o documento reuniu "informações e
avaliações dispersas" e que pode ajudar a encurtar o processo entre o
desenvolvimento da ciência e as ações políticas, dando como exemplo a previsão
de fortalecimento do Programa das Nações Unidas para o Meio Ambiente (Pnuma, ou
Unep, na sigla em inglês).

Veja abaixo a matéria na íntegra em inglês:

Scientists criticise lack of urgency in Rio+20 accord

As the sun sets over Rio+20, scientists express doubts its accord
heralds a new dawn for sustainable development.

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) ended last
Friday (22 June) with an international agreement on the need for all countries
to commit themselves to achieving sustainable development. The agreement
immediately came under fire from several quarters for its lack of detail about
how this will be done, and the absence of new financial commitments from the
developed world.

Critics in the scientific and technical communities also said it lacked
adequate recognition of the importance of science in achieving sustainable
development, and details of mechanisms for facilitating the technology transfer
needed to make this possible.

But the agreement could lead to a stronger interface between science and
policy. And voluntary pledges announced outside the formal proceedings of the
conference could, if fulfilled, significantly boost sustainable technology in
the developing world.

Science at Rio+20 - Some 188 heads of state and government,
as well as ministers, had assembled for three days (20-22 June) at Rio+20 in
Brazil to endorse the 53-page outcome document, The Future We Want. The summit
differed in important respects from its predecessor, the 1992 UN Conference on
Environment and Development (UNCED), or Earth Summit, also held in Rio de
Janeiro.

Unlike the earlier meeting, the outcome was intended to be a broad statement
of intent, with no legal status, and was never officially expected to include
commitments to new funding.

Instead, Rio+20's goal was to address ways of implementing the sustainable
development agenda that was agreed in 1992 but remains largely unfulfilled, as
well as tackling environmental, social and economic issues that have emerged
since then. On several issues, the document left the science and engineering
communities dismayed.

For example, scientists had hoped that the text would express urgency over
the accumulated evidence that many of the planet's systems are now under
dangerous stress, threatening, for example, fish numbers and terrestrial food
chains.

But it proved impossible to reconcile such a statement, and its implied
support for limiting economic growth, with the goal's paramount goal - namely,
how to raise more than one billion people out of extreme poverty, a task for
which many claim economic growth remains essential. As a result, the outcome is
likely to be "sustainable development as usual", rather than action on the scale
that the scientific evidence now demands, said Gisbert Glaser, senior advisor at
the International Council for Science (ICSU).

Research communities also complained that science was not given the same
prominence as a critical component of sustainable development solutions as it
had been in documents generated by the 1992 summit. In particular, no section of
the final document includes the word "science" in its title.

"We simply don't understand why the document does not have a section on
science. This lack sends a very unfortunate message to the global science
community and its sponsors," said Steven Wilson, ICSU's executive director.
However, the agreement does provide a number of openings to enable the better
integration of science into policymaking.

In particular, nations have "invited" the UN General Assembly to "upgrade"
and "strengthen" the Nairobi-based UN Environment Programme (UNEP), a process
that is likely to provide the programme with more secure funding and universal
membership. Currently, UNEP relies on mostly voluntary contributions and a
governing council made up of 58 UN members states.

The changes to UNEP will include a stronger science/policy interface in order
to improve evidence-based decision-making. UNEP will also disseminate
evidence-based environmental information, provide capacity building to
countries, and support and facilitate access to sustainable technology.

The meeting also decided to replace the Commission on Sustainable Development
(CSD) - a body set up in 1992 to ensure effective follow-up to the first Earth
Summit - with a 'high-level political forum,' which will have greater powers to
ensure adherence to sustainable development commitments.

The Future We Want says the new forum "could" strengthen the
science/policy interface "through review of documentation bringing together
dispersed information and assessments ... in the form of a global sustainable
development report".

And nations have agreed to initiate a process leading to the creation of
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in which the scientific community will be
"fully involved". The document's frequent references to the need for capacity
building in science in developing countries will put pressure on governments,
science funders and UN organisations to do more in this regard, said Glaser.

However several references in the document to the importance of technology in
helping developing countries meet their economic, social and environmental needs
have been criticised on two fronts.

Overall, according to a number of NGOs, these references give the impression
that many problems of sustainability can be solved with "technological fixes".
In contrast - and unmentioned in the document - recent thinking within global
change research communities has led them to re-cast their programmes as
multidisciplinary enterprises more suited to tackling the complex problems
inherent in achieving a green economy. "There is good, supporting language on
technology [in the final text] which we fully support," said Glaser.

"But we also need new knowledge for the green economy - for example [that
which comes from the] social sciences, behavioural science, and understanding of
consumption patterns. And there is nothing in the text that says we need that
new knowledge."

A second criticism was that there was no agreement on ways of delivering
technology transfer through non-market mechanisms (an international fund, for
example). This sentiment was expressed particularly strongly by the Group of 77
(a loose coalition of developing nations designed to promotes its members'
collective economic interests at the UN).

On this issue, the text merely asks the UN to identify possible steps for
improving developing countries' access to clean technologies, and to make
recommendations to its 67th General Assembly, taking place in September this
year. The text has "glossed over" key issues for developing countries, including
the financing of technology transfer, said Quamrul Chowdhury, principal
negotiator for the G77+China group.

On a more promising note, from the negotiations' outset, Rio+20's
secretary-general, Sha Zukang, had asked governments, development banks, the
corporate sector and civil society groups to register voluntary commitments as a
way of bypassing the challenges of multilateral agreements.

By Friday night, the "compendium of commitments" numbered 692 promises, with
an estimated $513 billion mobilized from the 13 largest commitments. Some of
this money will be used to finance the use of more sustainable technologies,
including a major commitment by a consortium of development banks to finance
sustainable transport.

'Sustainable Energy For All', a project launched by UN secretary-general, Ban
Ki-moon, which aims to achieve, by 2030, targets in energy access and
efficiency, and in renewable energy, received commitments worth more than US$50
billion from businesses and investors.

The UN announced that more than 50 governments from Africa, Asia, Latin
America and Small Island Developing States are developing energy plans and
programmes. Commenting on the overall outcome of Rio+20, Helena Nader, president
of the Brazilian Association for the Advancement of Science, said she was
disappointed with the final document.

"It is weak - not focused - with important gaps," Nader said, adding that it
did not adequately reflect the large amount of work put into producing it. "It
is a backward step. Science is almost nonexistent throughout the document," she
said.

Achim Steiner, UNEP's executive director, admitted that many scientists would
see the outcome document as having failed to "[change] our trajectory for the
coming years". But the document had a "hidden richness that will allow many
activities to go forward", he added.

With additional reporting by Luisa Massarani.

A matéria está disponível em http://www.scidev.net/en/science-and-innovation-policy/science-at-rio-20/news/scientists-criticise-lack-of-urgency-in-rio-20-accord.html.