Presentation delivered at the 13th Economics of Infrastructures Conference (http://www.ei.tbm.tudelft.nl/13thEvIConference). Includes an overview of the UN work related to sustainable development and a brief reflection related to international governance of such issues.

1. The role of the United Nations in the
governance of Socio-Ecological Systems
Nicolò Wojewoda

2. GOALS
• EXPLAIN
• my work at the UN
• the UN’s role in sustainable
development
• REFLECT on international
governance on sustainable
development issues

3. UN EVENTS
UN Commission on
Sustainable
Development
18th session
1° Prep Comm for
Earth Summit 2012
May 2010

4. A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY...
1972 first conference
1982 sustainable development
1992 Earth Summit
2002 World Summit Sust. Dev.
2012 Earth Summit (Rio+20)
Commission on
Sustainable Johannesburg
Agenda 21 Development Plan of
Implementation Convention on
Biological Diversity
Marrakesh Process Framework Convention
on Climate Change

5. COMMISSION ON • 2-year cycles
SUSTAINABLE • rewiew + policy
DEVELOPMENT • Major Groups
THIS YEAR
• rewiew
• topics: transport,
chemicals, waste
management, ...

6. MAJOR GROUPS
ADVANCE
• specific interests
• ideas

7. MAJOR GROUPS
ADVANCE
• specific interests
• ideas
COLLABORATE
• governments
• NGOs

8. MAJOR GROUPS
ADVANCE
• specific interests
• ideas
COLLABORATE
• governments
• NGOs
SHARE
• other young people

9. EARTH SUMMIT 2012 PrepComm 1
PROCESS
• interministerial guidance
• civil society involvement
CONTENT
• two tracks approach: binding and non-
binding
• 3 pillars of sustainable development

10. REFLECTIONS (1)
• interest in getting to know what’s happening at other
levels(partnership fair, side events)
• “cities are where innovation happens”
• Major Group Local Authorities
• “the UN is the only to have power to convene”
• national committees

11. REFLECTIONS (2)
BUT...
• core and side issue disagreements (e.g. Palestine)
• lack of true dialogue and systematic approach to
understanding policentricity
• shaming and honoring not realistic

12. REFLECTIONS (3)
RIO 2012
• scale up information exchange
• good practices
• abritration role (International
Environmental Tribunal)

13. YOUTH PERSPECTIVES
sustainable development
- paradigm shift: individual change in behavior/thinking
- policentricity
- critical mass => collective action

14. YOUTH PERSPECTIVES
sustainable development
- paradigm shift: individual change in behavior/thinking
- policentricity
- critical mass => collective action
Copenhagen
- failure: no fair, ambitious, legally-binding agreement
- success: created a movement

15. YOUTH PERSPECTIVES
sustainable development
- paradigm shift: individual change in behavior/thinking
- policentricity
- critical mass => collective action
Copenhagen
- failure: no fair, ambitious, legally-binding agreement
- success: created a movement
Rio 2012 and new global governance structure
- structure and uphold committments
- vision + accountability + compliance
- guide, inspire and support action (capacity building)

16. “[...] negotiations themselves need
to be led by government, as
governments need to set the
context of the regulatory
framework in which they will
operate with each other as well as
internally [...]”

17. “but once that regulatory framework is set, the
regulatory framework, ideally, should provide a
very clear market signal, a very clear incentive,
for the private sector to mobilize its very
important potential of capital that will actually
motor forward the transformation that we need in
order to be able to address climate change”

18. “but once that regulatory framework is set, the
regulatory framework, ideally, should provide a
very clear market signal, a very clear incentive,
for the private sector to mobilize its very
important potential of capital that will actually
motor forward the transformation that we need in
order to be able to address climate change”
Christiana Figueres
Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC