Since opening its 18th session on 3 May, the commission has had to deal with numerous warnings on many dangers ahead of us. Sadly, it doesn’t come as a surprise when U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told delegates that  ”Few of the challenges identified at the Rio Earth Summit have been adequately tackled” at the 18th session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), in reference to the 1992 UN conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In fact, the world is way behind schedule in reaching targets and halting pollution of the planet and destruction of natural resources. On the contrary, Ban said that additional and urgent challenges have come up.

Eight major social ills had been identified  by the international community at the 2000 Millennium Summit, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); the specific targets were:

• eradicating poverty and hunger in the world;
• achieving universal primary education;
• strengthening gender equality;
• reducing child mortality;
• improving maternal health;
• combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases;
• ensuring environmental sustainability;
• developing a global partnership for development.

The EU has made a commitment to reach these goals by 2015; in many areas the situation has become even worse, and we still haven’t agreed on and taken the necessary steps to save the planet.

“Good ideas are not enough. We need focused action. We know what we need to do. We know what works. The time for delay is over. The time for delivery is now,” Those were the urging words of Ban when he  called for concrete, practical decisions and swift action with a continual assessment of progress. The goals that have been set cannot be achieved simply by pursuing the same policies as before.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Sha Zukang has been appointed chairman of the “Rio+20” conference held in Brazil in 2012, which will focus on four areas:

• review of commitments
• green economy in the context of poverty eradication
• institutional framework for sustainable development
• emerging issues

Right now there are so many serious issues to be tackled all over the world; the decisions and action we take today will shape the future for centuries to come. Hopefully this new effort will spur further action, it really is high time.