Rio+20 Declaration: A Gift to Corporate Polluters - FOEI MEDIA ADVISORY
RIO DE JANEIRO (BRAZIL), June 20, 2012 – The deal on the table at the
Rio+20 Summit [1] does nothing to address the environmental and social
crises that the world is facing; it simply allows multinational corporations
to continue exploiting people and the planet without restraint, according to
Friends of the Earth International.
"Politicians are spinning this outrageous deal as a victory but in fact it
is nothing less than a disaster for the planet. This is a hollow deal and a
gift to corporate polluters that hold UN decision-making hostage to further
their economic interests," said Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends of the Earth
International.
Multinational corporations made massive lobbying efforts in the past twenty
years to ensure that the UN serves their own interests rather than promoting
solutions that benefit the people, such as economic justice, climate justice
and food sovereignty.
"The Rio+20 Summit obviously ignored the demands of the 50,000 people
marching today from the alternative Peoples' Summit in Rio. Corporate
interests prevailed. The deal even allows countries to sell out nature to
multinational corporations while it does not include any measures to hold
corporations accountable for their negative impacts," said Lucia Ortiz,
Economic Justice International Program Coordinator for Friends of the Earth
International.
"Fortunately the so called 'Green Economy' does not have such a prominent
role that corporations would have wished to see in the declaration, and this
is a victory for all those opposed to the destructive Green Economy agenda
promoted by industrialised countries and multinational corporations," added
Lucia Ortiz.
On June 22 Friends of the Earth International chair Nnimmo Bassey will meet
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and deliver a civil society statement
denouncing the corporate domination of the United Nations.[2]
More than 400 civil society organizations representing millions of people
from around the world signed the statement -initiated by Friends of the
Earth International and nine other organisations- which will be delivered in
the sidelines of the UN Rio+20 Earth Summit.[3]
Nnimmo Bassey will meet Ban Ki-moon in a meeting with the organisers of the
alternative Peoples Summit in Rio, which includes Friends of the Earth
International. The statement is part of a Friends of the Earth International campaign
'Reclaim the UN' which included the launch on June 19 of a report exposing
the increasing influence of major corporations and business lobby groups
within the UN. [3]
The report 'Reclaim the UN from Corporate Capture' presents a number of
cases that clearly expose how UN policies and agencies are excessively
influenced by the corporate sector, for instance oil company Shell, Dow
Chemical, Monsanto, the Coca Cola company, and the Chinese oil giant
PetroChina.
A recent example of how the UN is unduly influenced by corporations is the
'World Business and Development Award´ that the UNDP awarded on June 19 to
food giant Nestlé. Nestlé has been accused of failing to act on child labour
and slavery in its cocoa supply chain and of exploiting farmers in the dairy
and coffee sectors for many years. The UN Global Compact never properly
investigated these violations and took no steps to stop the alleged abuses
by Nestlé. The award praises Nestlé enabling it to further greenwash its
operations.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Lucia Ortiz, Economic Justice International Program Coordinator, Friends of
the Earth International (in Brazil) Tel: + 55 51 98 41 87 07 or +55 21
6968 7826 or email lucia@natbrasil.org.br
Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends of the Earth International: Tel: +55 21 69
68 78 24 (Brazilian cell from June 15-23 only) or +234 803 727 4395 Nigerian cell), or email Nnimmo@eraction.org
Paul de Clerck, Corporates Campaign Coordinator, Friends of the Earth
International Tel: + 32 494 38 09 59 or email paul@milieudefensie.nl
NOTES TO EDITORS
[1] The Summit website is http://www.uncsd2012.org
[2] More information about the statement and the signatories is online at
http://www.foei.org/end-un-corporate-capture
[3] The new report is online at
http://www.foei.org/reclaim-the-UN-report/view