Switzerland has concrete proposals for reform in three areas for the 2011 Rio+20 Conference.
It would like to use examples of good practice to demonstrate how sustainable development is being implemented and evaluated in Switzerland. Wide-ranging measures to improve sustainable development have been implemented on national, cantonal and communal levels since Rio 1992. And thanks to the MONET indicator system, it is also possible to monitor and evaluate sustainable development in Switzerland.
Switzerland also proposes concrete reforms for international sustainability governance. The focus here is on the renewal of the international bodies for sustainable development. The proposed reforms include the following measures:
- Peer Review: countries should be assessed and advised by other countries in relation to their sustainability policy. This kind of system has proven successful in other areas, for example in the context of the OECD.
- Civil society involvement: civil society should assume an important place in the work carried out by the international bodies for sustainable development.
- Global sustainable development goals: Switzerland also supports the establishment of global sustainability goals (similar to the Millennium Development Goals) with a view to improving international sustainability governance, and has other concrete ideas for reform.
In Switzerland’s view, the proposed reforms can best be implemented if the CSD assumes the form of a global sustainability council which is a subsidiary body of the UN General Assembly (similar to the Human Rights Council).
Switzerland would also like to improve the structures of international environmental policy – the third area of the proposed reforms. The aim here is to bring the long years of international negotiations in this sector to a successful conclusion. Based on the international debate, Switzerland makes concrete proposals for reform, for example the development of a common environmental strategy for the entire UN system. It also proposes measures for the improved exploitation of synergies between the existing international conventions. It will emerge from the negotiations whether these measures can be achieved through the reform of the existing United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) or through the establishment of a new UN organisation.
>>> next page: Implementation in Switerzland