THE CITIES OF MERCOSUR AT THE RIO +10

“If sustainable development does not start in the cities,

it simply will not go. Cities have to lead the way”.

Maurice Strong

Foreword

The United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development, the Rio+10, which will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, aiming to assess the fulfillment of the commitments signed at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development – Rio 92, represents an opportunity for local governments to express themselves on the problems and difficulties found in the process of preparation/elaboration and implementation of Local Agenda 21, as well as on the procedures, strategies and proposals adopted in the quest for sustainable development throughout the world. The Local Agenda 21 is the instrument that establishes the indicators to search for and to attain sustainable development and a future, assuring a balance among economic, social and environmental needs.

This Agenda is of most importance to enable local authorities to propose and include modifications in the United Nations Program for the Environment.

 The Rio +10 Summit should discuss the implementation and the ways that lead (towards) to sustainable development, a concept which is based on the reconciliation of economic development with social equity as regards access to goods and services and environmental preservation. The political strategies and techniques aimed at overcoming difficulties inherent in the establishment of such equilibrium involve issues which are a priority within the scope of the Summit, such as:

·          Poverty prevention and reduction;

·          Access to technology and information as a means to enable social and economic development.

·          Renegotiation of the debt of developing countries so as to have funds allocated to the domestic development of said countries.

·          Preservation of natural resources, environmental protection, and review of currently existing consumption and production standards.

·          Application of the principle of shared social responsibility to the public management decision making process and, above all, geared to the financial, academic and private sectors.

·          Implementation of actions which foster and facilitate the use of technical-scientific instruments to help in the decision making process geared to sustainable development.

The position of governments and financing agencies of developed countries in North America and Europe in the discussion of these questions, will have an influence on the guidelines to be established for finance operations, economic aid or political action as regards third world developing countries.

Mercosur cities, specially through the Mercocities Network, have assumed an outstanding role in drawing up proposals and strategies relating to topics of importance to the cities and regions of the block, in their attempt to understand, assess and revert Latin America’s current economic, social, political, cultural, and environmental reality. Particularly, by proposing the concept of “Sharing Cities”, which is based on four principles of ecological, ethical, efficiency and social equity-oriented nature (EMS, 2001).

The Environmental Thematic Unit of the Mercocities Network has promoted discussions which reflect the concern of current mayors with the limited availability of funds for carrying out local development and social integration policies, which have aggravated social exclusion and inequality in many cities.  In this respect, the Network cities participating in these discussions vigorously defend new economic policies aimed at providing an incentive to economic growth and sustainable development. They have also stated that local governments should act as a counterbalance to the current global scenario, which has promoted an indiscriminate opening to financial and commercial flows, thus increasing inequality, in that it has not made it possible for Latin American countries to increase their socioeconomic potential.

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THE ENVIRONMENT THEMATIC UNIT
Mobilization of the Mercocities Network for participation in the Rio +10

The Environment Thematic Unit of the Mercocities Network, under the coordination of the Sao Paulo Municipal Secretariat of the Environment, has been promoting, since September 2001, several events aimed at gathering and coordinating mayors and environment secretaries of Latin American cities in discussions on Local Power and implementation of the Local Agenda 21 concerning topics related to urban problems, the environment, public policies and sustainability.

The first important meeting, aimed at contributing to the Agenda 21 discussion and analysis process and proceeding with the establishment of relations with large Latin American cities was held in Sao Paulo in December 2001. Environment Secretaries from Belo Horizonte, Buenos Aires, Porto Alegre, Rosario, Montevideo, São Paulo and Mexico City, were present.

Such event represented an excellent opportunity to include themes and agendas raised at meetings and summits of the local block governments in the proposal of Latin American and Caribbean countries for the Rio +10 Summit. That meeting gave origin to a manifesto on the crucial issues relating to local power and sustainable development: “The São Paulo Commitment”.

In continuing with the proceedings of the Thematic Unit, a new meeting was convened in June 2002, included in the URBIS - International Congress and Fair of Innovative City Management Policies and Practices. It was attended by representatives of the Mercosur cities and members of the Mercocities Network, and its purpose was to analyze the themes of the Agenda 21, Globalization and Local Power, and to attain a proposal to be presented to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, the Rio + 10 Summit.

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The Local Agenda 21 and the challenges of sustainable development in a globalized world

The Environment Thematic Unit – with the valuable contribution of Professor Henrique Rattner – coordinated and moderated an electronic discussion among approximately two hundred participants on a series of questions relating to the difficulties found in the implementation of Local Agendas 21, and to the obstacles to be overcome so as to make it possible to reach sustainable development, above all in the Third World. The initiative gave rise to important contributions to the Mercocities Network, which was taken to the June 2002 meeting.

According to the participants of that meeting, the main challenges to be overcome so that sustainable development can be reached, are directly related to the reversion of the traditional natural and human resources exploitation model which, besides being saturated, has begun to show itself both inefficient, considering the point of view of the economic benefits which it produces, and cruel, considering the consequences it generates.

The viability of the effective implementation of Local Agendas 21, a commitment assumed by almost 800 cities at the 1992 Earth Summit, is one of the important instruments for the reversion of this model.

People’s participation in the preparation and implementation of Local Agendas 21 is the difference that allows the involvement of society and its joint liability, in respect to established targets. 

 However, the intensification of globalization, combined with the imposition to all countries of the planet of social and economic relations governed by the market logic, ten years after the 1992 Earth Summit, has from the perspective of the socio- economic development and of the environmental degradation specially in Third World developing countries, ended up colliding with the principles of Sustainable Development.

As regards the commitment assumed at the 1992 Earth Summit to increase the percentage of funds geared to the treatment of Sustainable Development in industrialized countries, the world scenario has evolved in the opposite direction.

With globalization, the intensification of the exclusory and segregating development model, the urban concentration process of the last decade has become alarming, with the aggravation of social, urbanistic and environmental problems, which affect poorer inhabitants in a much more direct way. Cities are being increasingly called upon to administer these problems, and yet, in many countries, specially those in Latin America, they are disregarded by the tax collecting policies of the federal government, which do not provide for the transfer of funds to the cities in the required proportion, having in view increasing responsibilities delegated to them in the local management of global problems which affect the planet.

As regards the local governments’ capacity to intervene in decisions of the United Nations, it can be noted that only National States are valid interlocutors. Local governments are disregarded. This is confirmed, for example, by the fact that municipal governments, upon being identified at UN meetings, fall into the category of interest groups, the so-called Chief Groups (Youth, Agriculture, Corporate, Native Communities, Labor, Women, Non-governmental Organizations and Local Authorities).

Ten years after the Rio Conference and thirty after the Stockholm Conference, the Johannesburg Summit has the mission to surpass declarations and letters of intention and demand the establishment of actual/ procedures, aiming at social equity and global access to material and intellectual assets historically produced from the exploitation of resources of countries located in an eternal “developing” stage.

It should be added that since manifestations of the third sector organizations known generically as NGOs, took place in Seattle, criticisms from society e from citizens throughout the world against aspects and negative impacts of globalization have become clear. This demand for practical decisions is also a consequence of the exhaustion of the United Nations “Summits”, whose declarations and agreements in general remain on paper, without being converted into practical and concrete measures. It should also be added to these factors that the agenda and the proposals for sustainable development have been emptied since the terrorist acts of September 11 in the United States, which supplanted the discussions and claims that were being put forward by NGOs, international organizations, and democratic governments all over the world.

Confronting with industrialized countries will be the governments of developing countries, which together with the NGOs and other major groups including cities, will fight for the definition of a more pragmatical and effective 2002 Summit Agenda.

Such actors are expected to demand that commitments and partnerships be entered into between governments, the private sector, and the civil society for the implementation of results and programs derived from the Johannesburg Summit, which implies the provision of actual technical and financial support. They should accordingly demand the establishment of a substantial action plan for the implementation of the objectives endorsed by the world leaders in the Millennium Declaration.

The greatest challenge to be faced is the transition from the normative to the programmatic and operational phase. That requires investments and the use of new knowledge and technologies.

To that effect, the following will constitute priority topics at the Johannesburg Summit:

·          Procedures and conditions for obtaining development financing.

·          Latest facts known and technologies – access, commerce and applications;

·          The Kyoto Protocol – global warming and climate change;

·          The biological diversity and the preservation of traditional knowledge – Biodiversity    Convention.

All over the world, representatives of national diplomacies, of cities and local governments, of NGOs and social movements, of companies and multinational groups are being mobilized to register and mark their positions in the Third World Conference on the Environment and Sustainable Development, the Rio +10 Summit.

Conflicts of interest are profound. To overcome them, the only possible strategy is to make clear that there is no economic sustainability without social and environmental sustainability.

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Mercocities in Johannesburg:  Ensuring presence and demanding actions

In order to face these issues and to prevent Rio + 10 from becoming just another summit without effective results to produce changes in the dynamics of development and with the objective of strengthening local power, the following procedures have been defined by the representatives of municipalities in the Environmental Thematic Unit of the Mercocities Network:

1. The formal claim for the official inclusion of local government representatives in the national committees of the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development, Rio + 10, has been filed with the ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives) representative. 

2. Municipal representatives should occupy all spaces available during the local power fora of the United Nations, to demand their recognition as official government interlocutors during such meetings.  

3. The cities of the Mercocities Network, through the Environmental Thematic Unit, are intent on making available, articulating and integrating information, experience and relevant environmental work produced at the local level, to strengthen cities so that they can promote social, economic, environmental and policy-related sustainability to enforce their Local Agendas 21.

4. The document to be presented in Johannesburg by the representatives of the Mercocities Network is the “Sao Paulo Commitment” letter, that has been ratified by the cities of Campinas, Rio Claro, Sao Bernardo do Campo, Santo André, Porto Alegre, Pelotas, Caxias and Montevideo.

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“SÃO PAULO COMMITMENT” Letter

December 3, 2001

We, the representatives of Buenos Aires, Belo Horizonte, Mexico City, Montevideo, Porto Alegre, Rosario and São Paulo, convened in the City of São Paulo, Brazil, to exchange experiences, data and considerations on the Local Agenda 21 and on the role of the local governments aiming at reaching sustainable development and the preparation of our cities for the United Nations Summit for Sustainable Development, to be held in Johannesburg, in September 2002,

Considering:

·          the effective prevention of poverty and social inequalities and the fight for preservation of natural resources and the environment inseparable;

·          the participation of local governments extremely important in the process of implementation of the Agendas21;

·          the fact that environmental sustainability should be subordinated to social, economic and political sustainability of most importance;

We claim:

·          the renegotiation of the debts of developing countries to make possible the allocation of funds for projects and programs  geared to economic social and environmental development of our communities;

·          the elimination of tax shelters and the taxation of international financial flows, with the constitution of a fund aimed at  fighting poverty, according to the Agenda 21 guidelines;

·          the international community support for specific strategies and mechanisms which make possible the use of local opportunities possible in the implementation of Agenda 21, which implies access to financial resources and new technologies;

We undertake to:

·          set as a priority, within the scope of the cities, the observation of and active participation in the process of preparation of  the World Summit for Sustainable Development;

·          seek joint and common solutions on themes of interest and priorities of Latin American cities, aiming at the effective implementation of Local Agendas 21;

·          coordinate and mobilize the various sectors of municipalities, so that environmental criteria be incorporated into sectorial  policies, leading urban growth towards social and environmental sustainability;

·          build and consolidate coordination spaces within cities, in order to establish integrated, democratic and participative environmental management procedures, thus guaranteeing transparency and efficacy of actions.

·          build and consolidate spaces for the coordination of cities to approach the environmental management theme for  sustainable development on a permanent basis as, for instance, the Mercocities Network and its environment thematic unit;

·          actively collaborate with the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), in charge of organizing the participation of cities in the United Nations World Summit for Sustainable Development.

Our cities, further undertake to act with local civil society organizations involved in projects and programs for sustainable development.

We also intend to act jointly in the negotiation of new credit lines, which may permit the effective and immediate implementation of Agenda 21 action plans.

The Word Summit for Sustainable Development represents a unique opportunity for local governments to express their position on the problems and difficulties found in the process of preparation and implementation of strategies and proposals adopted in the pursuit of sustainable development

We have signed this declaration in two languages in the City of São Paulo, this December 3, 2001.

Red de Mercociudades up