"Summary of The Eye on Earth Summit"

The main points highlighted in “Summary of The Eye on Earth Summit” By Linkages, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), 18^th December, 2011.  are given below:

• The Eye on Earth Summit (Eye on Earth 2011) was convened under the patronage of President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), from 12-15 December 2011 in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

• Secretary-General, Environment Agency of Abu Dhabi (EAD), informed that Eye on Earth 2011 is held in recognition of the need for social and environmental data to be collected in a scientific manner, made publicly available, and reported in manner that support decision making.

• Co-Chair, Working Group on Capacity Building highlighted that there is a need to increase availability of geo-data for both decision making processes and for use in everyday life.

• CEO and Chairman, Global Environment Facility (GEF) mentioned that most GEF projects allocate 10% of their budget to hardware, GIS, remote sensing software, and expert training.

• General Director, National Institute for Space Research, Brazil, informed that making environmental information public helps to police illegal resource extraction as a 23% decline in Brazilian deforestation largely due to improved monitoring and enforcement since 2004 has been observed.

• President, World Green Building Council, highlighted that certifying green buildings and retrofitting buildings to be more energy, water efficient are gaining wide acceptance as 89 countries now have green building councils and 40% of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certifications are from outside the US.

• The Summit also hosted sessions on Rio+20, during which the role of environmental information in supporting decision making was discussed, and the Eye on Earth Summit Declaration was prepared.

• Recalling Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration, as well as the Bali Strategic Plan for Technology Support and Capacity-Building, participants noted the opportunity presented by Rio+20 to renew political commitment for the role of information in advancing sustainable development.

• Secretary-General, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), highlighted that international trade carried out consistently with CITES has contributed to the decrease of poverty through improved wildlife management, and contribute to sustainable development and achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

• Secretary-General, CITES urged for practical measures to advance high-level principles for addressing the over-exploitation of biodiversity and informed about initiatives like electronic permits and the CITES Trade Data Dashboards for visualizing and monitoring species trade.

Posted By:  

Ramesh Kumar Jalan, Ph.D.

Resource Person & Moderator

Climate Change Community, Solution Exchange,

United Nations Development Programme

New Delhi, India