Emily Benson, The Green Economy Coalition

If you have been lurking around UN corridors for the last few months you will have been aware of a rising clamour. The din is getting louder. It is coming from all quarters of the world. It is being voiced from a wide range of governments, communities and sectors. The message is clear: for too long our notions of progress have been dominated by economic success alone. The solution: we need different metrics. We need to measure what matters.

Nationality: French

Country of residence: USA

How did you get to the role where you are today and what advice do you have for aspiring climate champions/or sustainable development champions?

I’ve been a climate change negotiator for thirty years, after having been an environmental specialist for the last 14 years. I began as an activist in 1972 and then became a minister in 1992. From 2007-2010 I was an ambassador. It was during this time that I thought that climate change negotiations lacked the view of the “big picture” and therefore I thought that Rio+20 was the right thing to organize.

Sarah Fisher, Population and Sustainability Network

Population dynamics and particularly world population growth were identified at the 1992 Earth Summit as pivotal to environmental sustainability. Agenda 21 responded by setting out the urgent need to increase access to reproductive health programmes to enable women and men to plan the number and spacing of their children. These issues are now more critical than ever, yet since the first Rio conference they have commanded little attention as part of the sustainable development agenda.

Kirsty Schneeberger, Senior Policy Office at Stakeholder Forum
Dr Victoria Johnson, Senior researcher/ Head, climate change energy programme at nef

The Global Transition 2012 is an international network of organisations and leading thinkers from the Global North and South that is catalysing a ‘Global Transition’ by building a community of civil society organisations across the globe to promote and deliver a rapid transition to the desirable and beneficial economy that we aspire to.

Nationality: Hungarian

Residence: USA

What prompted your early interest in the environment?

I think that my first real interest in the environment was when I read The Limits to Growth. What struck me was that we can’t just continue growing, producing and consuming the resources that we do. Those resources are already limited and we cannot continue to limit them. To me, it’s also a global situation and not just about one region. I’ve always had a background with the idea of “globality”, linked to my father, who studied and worked abroad. Through him and other experiences, I’ve come to realize that you’re not just from one country and that you’re part of a huge world.

ETC Group

From the 2nd Intersessional on Rio+20, the ETC Group launched Who Will Control the Green Economy?, a report warning that the world’s largest companies are riding the coattails of the green economy while gearing up for the boldest coup to-date – not just by making strategic acquisitions and tapping new markets, but also by penetrating industrial sectors outside their traditional business.

Thomas Forster, International Partners for Sustainable Agriculture

The very first day of the 2nd Intersessional Meeting included two side events featuring two prominent areas of common concern across many submissions to the Rio+20 process: “Sustainable and Just Cities” and “Sustainable Agriculture at Rio+20”.