Catholic groups prepare for Rio +20 conference

At the end of June, world leaders, along with thousands of participants from governments, the private sector, NGOs and other groups, will come together in Rio de Janeiro to shape policy on how to reduce poverty, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection. The summit is taking place 20 years after the original Rio “Earth Summit” which took place in 1992.

“We think its an important event, and an important opportunity,” said Sarah Wykes, the lead analyst on environment and climate change for Catholic aid agency CAFOD, “but more to try and put poverty reduction and poor people’s livelihood at the centre of the debate about greening development, about moving to more sustainable development models.” CAFOD is one of the groups that will be attending the Rio +20 summit.

Wykes spoke about the themes of the conference: “There are two overarching themes: one is the green economy, and the other is the institutional framework for the post NDG’s, so whether there will be new development goals developed after 2015.”

She spoke about their expectations for the event: “We think this is more going to be about producing a vision of what sustainable development might look like, rather than coming out with specific objectives.”

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