Future Perfect

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] 149

ustainability

olicies

, P

rogrammes

and

their

conomic

mpact

Combating poverty and promoting a green economy

Switzerland has increased its share of public development assistance to

0.5 per cent of gross domestic product. Themain focus of its international

commitment to developing and emerging countries is on combating

poverty, in particular by fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals.

A key aspect of this is supporting partner countries’ efforts for transform-

ing towards a green economy. These programmes relate in particular to

the environment, energy, climate conservation, biodiversity, sustainable

agriculture/food security, chemicals and waste, sustainable trade, clean

production/technology transfer, water and forests.

In order to make the vision of sustainable development a reality,

all forces of society need to contribute. The private sector bears a

particular responsibility. Swiss companies are among the vanguard

of corporations that have expressed a commitment to sustainable

development. There are dedicated business associations and indus-

trial federations such as the Netzwerk für ökologisches Wirtschaften

(Swiss Sustainable Business Network, Öbu), and swisscleantech,

which support and reinforce the private sector’s sustainability efforts.

Many Swiss companies actively pursue sustainable products and

production processes. For example, the biggest retailers are also the

main promoters of sales of labelled products. Most large Swiss compa-

nies have also signed up to the United Nations Global Compact.

Despite all these efforts, it should be noted that in absolute terms,

Switzerland is far from being sustainable. This is illustrated first of

all by the ecological footprint, which reminds us that Switzerland

consumes almost three times the quantity of natural capital and

environmental resources than would be globally sustainable in the

long run. At the same time, the rapidly growing needs of develop-

ing countries, especially emerging countries, are likely to further

increase the pressure on the Earth’s ecosystems. This underlines

the urgency for developed and developing countries to cooperate in

adopting more sustainable consumption and production patterns.

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development

(Rio+20) provides a major opportunity in this regard. It enables

the international community to take stock and to take collective

action in order to promote sustainability at all levels. Switzerland

is committed to working constructively towards a successful and

ambitious outcome of Rio+20, which should renew and strengthen

the political commitment to sustainable development.

Switzerlandwelcomes the thematic focus of Rio+20 on green economy

in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication. The

conference should demonstrate that a green economy provides solutions

for taking into account natural resource use and its environmental and

social impacts on a long-term basis. It should also advance the under-

standing that a resource-efficient economy creates green jobs in sectors of

all levels of development and that it contributes substantially to national

competitiveness. In doing so, Rio+20 should also contribute to achieving

greater equity and to addressing poverty in developed, middle income

and developing countries, while renewing the commitment of the inter-

national community to support developing countries on their sustainable

development pathway. Switzerland is convinced that Rio+20 could be

an important milestone in the transition towards a green economy that

contributes to sustainable development and poverty eradication. The

focus should be on specific goals and measures with clear timelines for

their achievement. Switzerland has therefore proposed the establishment

of an international Green Economy Roadmap which assembles these

goals, measures and timelines.

With regard to the second theme of the conference, the strengthening

of the international institutions in charge of sustainable development,

Switzerland expects the Rio+20 conference to agree

upon a comprehensive package of reform measures

both for the strengthening of governance for sustainable

development in an integrative manner and for interna-

tional environmental governance. The Commission on

Sustainable Development, established after the United

Nations Conference on Environment and Development

in 1992, has not succeeded in playing the role it was meant

to play. Switzerland therefore proposes to strengthen

governance for sustainable development by establish-

ing a Sustainable Development Council that replaces

the existing Commission for Sustainable Development.

This council should in particular be better equipped to

monitor progress in achieving sustainable development,

for example through a progress assessment mechanism

which effectively facilitates the sharing of experiences and

best practices.

With regard to strengthening international environ-

mental governance, Switzerland is also looking towards

a package of targeted reform measures including:

• Establishing universal membership in the

governance body of a strengthened anchor

institution on the basis of the United Nations

Environment Programme

• Establishing a United Nations system-wide strategy

for environmental matters, increasing authority

to provide oversight, guidance, coordination and

coherence

• Enhancing synergies among multilateral

environmental agreements.

Last but not least, Switzerland expects Rio+20 to agree

on the establishment of global Sustainable Development

Goals, including their characteristics, priority themes

and the process for their detailed elaboration.

Through these measures in particular, Rio+20 will

prove to be a real milestone on the pathway to sustain-

able development for which we will be esteemed by

future generations.

Energy efficiency in housing is being promoted through the

EnergieSchweiz programme

Image: FOEN