Title of side event: Shifting sustainability horizons: Making or Painting the Economy Green

Date and time: 21 June, 5pm-6.30pm

Venue: RioCentro Convention Centre, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Room T-4)

Event synopsis: 

The 1992 Rio Earth Summit invited President Mikhail Gorbachev ^[1], Honorary Member of the Club of Rome, to create a “Red Cross for the environment.” 20 years later, the Club of Rome, Green Cross International  and the Earth Charter Initiative return to Brazil to stage a side event that discusses the critical need to move to a sustainable development path with a coherent set of policies, with people and the planet at the centre. 

Greening of the economy is just one part of what must be a multi-layered response. This is just a step on the road towards sustainability, and the global community must invest equal energy in securing peace, eradicating poverty and protecting our natural resources. To succeed we need the interaction of politics, business and civil society.

This side event will see leaders from a range of relevant fields discuss the urgent need for change in political, social and economic systems so to reduce the destruction of our planet’s ecology and ensure the healthy, peaceful continuation of our Human race.

Together, these three organizations offer a broad, united platform for presenting credible, scientifically justifiable, socially conscious and politically achievable guidance and options for responding to our planet’s climate change challenges and related threats, including deforestation, the water crisis, extreme weather events, poverty and insecurity.

Further information on the event  ^[2]

Planned speakers include:

• Alexander Likhotal ^[3], President, Green Cross International (GCI).
• Mirian Vilela ^[4], Executive Director, Earth Charter Initiative (ECI).
• Prof. Ernst Ulrich von Weizsaecker ^[5], Member of the Club of Rome, Co-Chair, International Panel on Sustainable Resource Use.
• Ashok Khosla ^[6], Co-President of the Club of Rome, President, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
• Marisa Arienza ^[7], President, Green Cross Argentina.

Related content:

• Official event notice ^[8]
• Green Cross International ^[9]
• Earth Charter Initiative ^[10]
• UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) ^[11]