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Rio+20 Wrap-up: Vital Stats

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With unprecedented participation from people hailing from all corners of the globe, thousands of events were held in the lead-up to and during Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development, including more than 500 official and side events at the Riocentro Convention Center, where the conference was held.

Below are some vital stats about the biggest UN conference ever held and the actions taken to make it sustainable.

Flags at Rio+20

Commitments

 Participants at Riocentro

  • The total number of participants was 45,381.
  • Delegations participated from 188 countries and three observers.
  • Over 100 Heads of State and Government attended, along with around 12,000 delegates.
  • 9,856 NGOs and Major Groups participated.
  • 4,075 media representatives attended.
  • About 5,000 people worked at Riocentro daily.

Volunteers

  • 1,500 people volunteered, including young people, selected from of technical schools, Rio de Janeiropublic school students, university students, and professionals from across Brazil.
  • Around 700 young people from vulnerable communities were selected.
  • 5 per cent of volunteers were people with disabilities.
Online participation 

PaperSmart

  • Rio+20 was the first major UN conference to carry out a “PaperSmart” programme to cut paper use, with a web platform built for sharing all conference documents so they could be downloaded anytime.
  • Paper consumption was less than one million sheets of paper – a reduction of close to 20 million sheets.
  • The PaperSmart model has also helped to provide access to materials for the hearing and visually impaired, such as making documents available to be read via Braille, a common system that allows the visually impaired to read and write, and offering sign language interpretation for main meetings.
  • 161 totems (electronic information points) were installed in major hotels, airports and other locations around the city with information on the event, tips for tourism in the city, transport options, the Conference agenda, maps and other information services, all in Portuguese, English and Spanish.

Rio+20 participant using a totem

Riocentro Event Space

The total area of Riocentro 571,000 m² which was home to:

  • 205 km of fiber optic cable network
  • Wireless Internet access for up to 32,000 concurrent users
  • 8 km of telephone cables
  • More than 5,000 ICT assets (computers, network equipment)
  • Network capacity equivalent to a city of 120,000 inhabitants
  • Shared infrastructure of 600 workstations
  • 17 restaurants in the food court
  • 36 X-ray portals

 Travel and transport

  • To encourage use of alternate fuels, a fleet of cars for official use had dual fuel (or bi-fuel) engines,  and other official vehicles were powered by biodiesel and gasoline mixed with ethanol.
  • A fleet of cars was provided by Renault-Nissan Electric Vehicles to transfer small groups of UN staff to and from the conference centre.
  • Spaces at Riocentro were equipped with bike racks.
  • To help offset air travel emissions of accredited delegates a digital tool was created allowing participants to calculate greenhouse gas emissions from air travel and purchase certified emission reductions to compensate for them

    Hybrid bus at RioCentro

 Energy

  • The power generators for Riocentro ran on fuel that is 20 percent biodiesel.
  • Event suppliers were encouraged to be energy efficient and utilize alternative fuels whenever possible.

Hotels

  • According to the Brazilian Association of Hotels inRio de Janeiro, the occupancy rate of hotels was 95 percent during the nine days before and during the conference.

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Rio+20 = commitments, commitments, commitments

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A major milestone for the Future We Want was achieved at the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development with the announcement on Friday, 22 June, that 700 concrete commitments have been registered from governments, business and industry, financial institutions and more.

More money has been mobilized in Rio than any previous UN conference, for the benefit of the planet and its people. The value of commitments at Rio+20 is a staggering US $513 billion.

As Conference Secretary-General Sha Zukang said, it’s an amazing achievement.

Thank you to social media platform Instagram for highlighting these Rio+20 images

And commitments go beyond financial pledges – a wide range of actions have been announced, from planting 100 million trees, to empowering 5,000 women entrepreneurs in green economy businesses in Africa, to recycling 800,000 tons of PVC per year.

The full package of agreements, actions, commitments, challenges, initiatives, and announcements made addresses global issues ranging from energy efficiency and food security to sustainable consumption and production and transportation.

Here are some highlights.

Sustainable Energy For All

More than a billion people will benefit from the $50 billion of funding committed under the Secretary-General’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative alone. People in developing countries will gain improved access to energy through grid extension and off-grid solutions, as well as scaled-up renewable energy sources, increased investment, and improved energy policies.

  •  d.Light Design, a social entrepreneur, is committed to providing solar lamps to 30 million people in more than 40 countries by 2015.
  • Ghana, one of the first countries to partner with the initiative, is developing a national energy action plan to support capacity-development and innovative financing mechanisms.
  • Sinopec, the world’s fifth largest company, pledged a $1 billion commitment towards improving the company’s energy and environmental footprint by 2015, which includes reducing water consumption and waste emissions and increasing energy efficiency.
  • The U.S. announced it will provide $2 billion in grants, loans and loan guarantees for policy and regulatory development, public-private energy technology partnerships, and loans and guarantees to leverage private investment in clean energy technology.

Sustainable transport

Eight multilateral development banks pledged to provide $175 billion over the next decade to support the development of sustainable transport in developing countries. This will benefit many millions of people and help address the major adverse aspects of transport including congestion, traffic accidents, and emissions and other negative environmental impacts.

Zero Hunger Challenge

Launched in Rio last night, the Secretary-General’s “Zero Hunger Challenge”  invites all nations to be boldly ambitious as they work for a future where everyone enjoys their right to food and all food systems are resilient. It aims to provide 100 percent access to adequate food all year round, while increasing small farm productivity and zero loss or waste of food was inspired by the bold work done by many countries and organizations to end hunger, including Brazil, whose ‘Fome Zero’ programme.  At the launch event, the United Kingdom announced that it would be contributing 150 million pounds to help meet the Challenge.

Corporate Sustainability Forum

Approximately 200 commitments to action were announced by companies during the Corporate Sustainability Forum, covering areas ranging from low- or no-carbon footprints to re-forestation, business plans for subsistence farmers and renewal of clean, fresh water sources.

  • Kingfisher, Europe’s largest home improvement retailer, committed to using 100 percent responsibly sourced timber and paper in all if its operations by 2020.
  • The company, Arborem, has entered into an agreement with Instituto Genômico de Recursos Florestais, Brazil’s leading land reform group, to help small holder farmers raise their productivity and their incomes to lift them above the poverty line.
  • Microsoft says it will achieve carbon neutrality through offsetting actions.
  • Unilever is launching a drive to halve the greenhouse gas impact of their products.
  • Nike’s target is zero discharge of hazardous chemicals along its entire supply chain, both by 2020.
  • 23 companies pledged to transparency and disclosure on their impact on climate change.
  • 260 major business schools and universities around the world endorsed a Declaration for Higher Education Institutions, committing to incorporating sustainability issues into teaching, research, and their own management and organizational activities.

Host country leadership

The Government of Brazil has demonstrated outstanding host country leadership in Rio through commitments on several global issues, including its pledge to achieve universal energy access in Brazil by 2014. As a global leader in sustainable energy, Brazil will invest in renewable energy, mainly in hydropower and biofuels but also including biomass and wind power, and will produce a total energy savings of 9 percent in 2030 from the electrical and transportation sectors.

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