Twenty years after the first Earth Summit – Rio 92, governments, international institutions and civil society representatives from all over the world will participate in the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (CNUSD or “Rio+20”).
The Earth Condominium project proposes that the Climatic and Oceanic systems are recognized as Intangible Natural Heritage of Mankind. This is the proposal that Quercus and some of its partners, submitted to compilation document of the Rio+20 Summit (available here).
In what initial conditions should we intervene in order to unblock the ‘prisoner’s dilemma’ and start a project of global collective action? This is the key question that resonates through two conferences that we will organize on two strategical moments related to Rio+20: one before, another after. Following the work of Elinor Ostrom on the management of common goods and the dilemma of collective action, we want to work on building the conditions of trust, reciprocity and predictability, necessary to increase the supply of environmental services and reduce the demand through eco-efficiency.
With the first conference, Ecobalance, Quercus and all the partners of the Earth Condominium project, intend to contribute and inspire the way to Rio+20. We wish to create a space for open debate on how to operationalize the accounts of our relations in the global neighborhood, which seek to internalize the environmental costs (debits) and benefits (credits) that are currently dispersed throughout humanity.
In the second conference, after Rio+20, we wish to debate the structural conditions in order to proceed with a delineation of competencies that propels institutional innovation and the constitution of a World Environmental Organization, which manages the accounting system previously referred to.
