Clock Ticks Down on Rio+20

The UN Conference on Sustainable Development—known as Rio+20—adopted an official text in negotiations this week, which will be debated on June 20 to 22. The 80-page document, titled “The Future We Want,” outlines the conference’s goals of sustainable development, corporate sustainability, and the importance of the private sector and free trade in achieving these goals. The summit was expected to draw 50,000 participants and the heads of state of more than 100 countries to Rio de Janeiro. However, “there are few expectations for concrete actions or pledges of new aid to developing countries,” reports the The New York Times. A piece in Mexican news site Animal Político also questions the conference’s sustainability, pointing to the huge carbon emissions involved in traveling to and hosting the conference. 

G20 Wraps up in Mexico

Discussions about the ongoing eurozone crisis dominated the two-day G20 summit held in Mexico this week. Members agreed to focus on improving Europe’s economic stability in the wake of continuing turbulence in Greece and Spain, and to avoid protectionist measures until 2014. The summit also succeeded in increasing funding contributions from emerging economies to international lending institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in exchange for promised reforms, including greater voting power for developing countries. China offered $43 billion to the IMF, while Brazil, India, Russia, and host country Mexico each agreed to contribute $10 billion. The United States used the opportunity to invite the G20 host country as well as Canada into negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a proposed nine-country free-trade area in the Asia-Pacific. 

Read an AS/COA Online News Analysis about the importance of the G20 being held in Mexico.

Learn more about the TPP in an AS/COA Online Explainer.

World Leaders to Tour Region after G20 and Rio+20

A number of world leaders will take Latin American tours after participating in the G20 in Mexico and the Rio+20 in Brazil. Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao will undertake a tour of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak will travel to Chile for three days after the two summits, and will also become the first South Korean president to visit Colombia, where he will spend two days. Portugal’s Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho is also visiting the region this week, making his first stop in Peru on Monday before continuing on to the Rio+20 in Brazil. He will spend this weekend in Colombia before returning home. 

Rio+20 Kicks off in Brazil

The United States Conference on Sustainable Development—known as Rio+20—begins June 13 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, marking the 20-year anniversary of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. An estimated 130 heads of government and state will attend, although U.S. President Barack Obama, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will not. Participants will discuss goals for sustainability as well as carbon emissions targets, but finding consensus could be a challenge.  Environmental protection is a critical issue for Latin America, as climate change damages could cost the region $100 billion annually, an IDB report revealed last week. 

LatAm Participants Gear up for G20

The Group of 20 (G20) summit begins June 18 in Los Cabos, Mexico, marking the first time the international event will be held in Latin America. The meeting will also mark a record number of Latin American participants: Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico are members, and Chile and Colombia will also send foreign ministers. While the eurozone crisis promises to be a dominant topic at the conference, Brazil and Mexico plan to discuss reforms to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Brazil will push for more voting power for developing countries at the IMF, and Mexico will urge participants to increase IMF funding in order to confront the global economic crisis. 

During a March 2012 conference in Mexico City, AS/COA explored Mexico’s role as the G20 host. Read relevant coverage on the conference blog at www.as-coa.org/Mexico2012.

The Mexican Presidential Debates and Its Election Impact

Mexico’s four presidential candidates held the second of two televised debates from Guadalajara on Sunday. With two weeks to go before that country’s election, Juan Manuel Henao writes for the Americas Quarterly blog that the debate had little influence on the election, with the candidates still struggling to catch up with the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s (PRI) Enrique Peña Nieto. Reporting from Guadalajara, where the debate took place, Reuters’ Lizbeth Diaz notes that governing-party candidate Josefina Vázquez Mota “offered most of the attacks during the debate, trying to brand her adversaries as two sides of the same coin, at turns describing them as corrupt, cowardly, and untrustworthy.”

The prospect of a PRI victory on July 1 attracted 90,000 student protesters from the YoSoy132 student movement on the day of the debate. That movement organized a debate for the candidates on June 19, for which all the candidates have confirmed attendance except Peña Nieto. 

Read an AS/COA Online News Analysis about the development of the YoSoy132 student protests in Mexico.