• by Martin Khor
• Tuesday, June 05, 2012
• Inter Press Service

With only few days to go before the start of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, there are disturbing signs that developed countries are attempting to backtrack from the commitments they made at the original Earth Summit of 1992 to assist the developing countries move towards the path of sustainable development, writes Martin Khor, executive director of the South Centre, an inter-governmental organisation of developing countries based in Geneva.

There are also fears that the conference, dubbed Rio+20, may not fully reaffirm the political commitments made twenty years ago.

The Rio+20 summit is facing the same hurdles of a North-South divide that recently became evident at negotiations in the World Trade Organisation, the Climate Change Convention and the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development.

Differences are evident in the three new issues being addressed by the Conference - the concept of the green economy, how to define sustainable development goals, and what new institutional framework to create to house future activities on sustainable development.

* Martin Khor is the executive director of the South Centre, an inter-governmental organisation of developing countries based in Geneva.

© Inter Press Service (2012) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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