Rio+20: Sustainable Development in a Time of Multilateral Decline

Steven Bernstein
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Steven Bernstein: Steven Bernstein is a professor of political science and co-director of the Environmental Governance Lab in the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto.

Global Environmental Politics, 2013, vol. 13, issue 4, 12-21

Abstract: The conditions that led to low expectations for the Rio+20 conference tell us more about the prospects for addressing collective global problems than a focus only on its substantive outcomes. Three conjectures on why expectations were so low are put forward: a lack of vision and modest ambition at the conference's core; unresolved and unconfronted normative contestation that limited progress on potentially transformative ideas such as the green economy; and practices of multilateralism that have not caught up to structural changes in the global system, exacerbated by the inability or unwillingness of key actors to move from entrenched identities. Some surprising institutional outcomes of Rio are also assessed in light of the three conjectures. This form of analysis turns attention to the politics that the outcomes reflect and opportunities and pitfalls going forward. © 2013 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Keywords: sustainable development; United Nations; global environmental governance; Rio+20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q01 Q50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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