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Sustainable Development in the 21st century (SD21)

Expert Group Meeting on SD21 Sustainable Development Scenarios for the Rio+20 Summit

27-29 June 2011

Organized by United Nations DESA and hosted at the International institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Schlossplatz 1, 2361 Vienna/Laxenburg, Austria

Background

In the context of the preparation of the Rio+20 (UNCSD) summit in June 2012, the UN Division for Sustainable Development will conduct a study, entitled "Sustainable development in the 21st century (SD21)". The objective of the SD21 study is to prepare a substantive contribution to the debate at the Rio+20 conference, which takes stock of the changes and evolution having occurred since the 1992 Earth summit in the area of sustainable development, and provides a clear vision and way forward for the international community, national governments, partnerships and other stakeholders in implementing the sustainable development agenda in an integrated manner. The study is expected to also become an important analytical and political contribution in its own right. Workshops and expert group meetings will be organized to gather inputs to the SD21 document. The present expert group meeting focuses on one component of the study, i.e., sustainable development scenarios.

Objectives

The overall objective of the expert group meeting is to take stock of scenario initiatives for Rio+20 and foster further collaboration on a coherent set of SD21 scenarios and the related SD21 study. The expert group meeting constitutes a critical step to the mobilization of global expertise on sustainable development scenarios as envisioned in the SD21 study. The meeting will allow for an interactive discussion with the modelling community at large on how to best specify long-term sustainability scenarios that can be used for the SD21 study - in essence, quantitative and qualitative SD21 sustainable development scenarios, covering a wide range of sustainable development issues and policy instruments, well beyond energy and climate change. The expert group meeting will also be used to raise awareness of the study, and mobilize the full community of modellers, thereby facilitating the identification of quality contributions to the SD21 study.

Proceedings of the meeting are available in the meeting report.

 

SD21 Drafters’ workshop

5-6 April 2012

Organized by United Nations DESA at UN Headquarters, NY Objectives

The expert group meeting aimed to support the preparation of the SD21 synthesis report for policy-makers, to be tabled at UNCSD (Rio+20). The overall objective of the meeting was to gather input from the lead drafters of the seven studies that were commissioned by The Division for Sustainable Development (DSD) under the SD21 project. Specific objectives of the meeting were:

  • To allow for an interaction among the lead contributors to the project, enabling the sharing of perspectives among them with a view to best informing the synthesis report of the project
  • To brainstorm on what the core messages of a summary for policymakers should be
  • To gather the lead authors’ feedback on an initial draft of the full synthesis report of the project
  • To agree on steps to be taken by all involved to disseminate the findings of the project, both before and during UNCSD and in the longer term

Proceedings of the meeting are available in the meeting report.

Presentation Author
Components of SD21 David Le Blanc
Review of Agenda 21 and Rio Declaration Felix Dodds
Building a Sustainable and Desirable Economy-in-Society-in-Nature Robert Costanza
Sustainable development scenarios for Rio+20 R. Alexander Roehrl
On challenges and ways forward in the urban sector Kaarin Taipale
Energy Mark Howells
Sustainable land use for the 21st century Ephraim Nkonya

Launch of SD21 report at Rio+20

17 June 2012

Side event organized by United Nations DESA at Rio Centro

The side event was organized to feature the studies produced under the SD21 project, as well as the project’s summary for policy makers. The panel of presenters consisted of all the lead authors of the SD21 studies. Authors gave short presentations of the main insights from their reports. This was followed by an interactive discussion between the panel and the audience.

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Presentation Author
Food and Agriculture: the future of sustainability Daniele Giovannucci
Components of SD21 David Le Blanc
Review of Agenda 21 and Rio Declaration Felix Dodds
Building a Sustainable and Desirable Economy-in-Society-in-Nature Robert Costanza
Sustainable development scenarios for Rio+20 R. Alexander Roehrl
On challenges and ways forward in the urban sector Kaarin Taipale
Energy Mark Howells
Sustainable land use for the 21st century Ephraim Nkonya

To see the webpage of the side event on the Rio+20 website, click here