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Information Systems for Sustainable Development

   
 
Rio+20
Rio+20 became the starting point of a long process of transformation; our goal is to guide companies into this new phase 
 

Opinions from the results of the summit in Rio were mostly negative:many spoke of bakruptcy,some said it was unnecessary,however,everyone emphasize the tremendous clash of interests among states which prevented them from making even the minimum commitments for a “ green economy” and for sustainable development.

 

In the final document ("The future we want" around 283 paragraphs  http://www.uncsd2012.org/content/documents/727The%20Future%20We%20Want%2019%20June%201230pm.pdf)  which outlines great goals to overcome poverty, for a broad economic restructuring, for the strengthening of sustainable technology and to prevent climate change.

Major objectives with no commitment, no tool, nor regional or global plans.

 

Attended by delegations from 188 countries (about 12,000 delegates), with 100 heads of state, 9,800 non-governmental organizations and large groups all over 45,000 present. The choice we had to make is to rely on “market”,the clash of interest now opposed,this is so contradictory to the policy scenerios that we are used to in the major regions of the planet.

 

The lack of commitment of Western countries and Europe should be noted and also of interest is the lack of media or very poor media coverage:the summit was term not to be of relevant news, in particular, all were quick to point out that the summit had been a failure. It was only the President of Brazil Dilma Rousseff who chaired the conference emphatically declared that the statement of objectives is still a result of great value,because all countries and people will have to deal with the targets that were written and agreed to by all..

 

All countries today are tied to a developmental model that tends to wastes large amount of resources,leading to rapid warming of the earth with devastating effects in all areas,which is unable to accompany the rapid growth of humanity and global cooperation for health and decent work.

 

The Copenaghen Summit had been prepared with important results from climate research which revealed that in addition to the serious dangers in place, especially the inability to predict the evolution of the phenomena and the awareness that climate change once triggered can not be stopped or restored.This,however, the Copenaghen summit agreed the “hypothesis of an increase of 2°C temperature at the end of the century. Today studies ( like the one published in “Nature Climate Change”) indicate that the scenerio would have been accepted because of an increase ( within two centuries) of 2 meter of sea level,that is ,the permanent flooding of New York ( and the cancellation of vast areas).

 

The lack of commitments in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions ,has shown its true nature,especially in later years with the outbreak of war and the huge financial debt of the industralized countries: the real battle is for resources and the real problem is the unwillingness of major powers to change the pattern of development,consumption and technologies by the abandonment of oil as  basic energy.

 

The reasons for Rio +20 in the countries of the world have shared commitments.

 

By 2050,humans will be consuming 140 billions tonnes of minerals,fossil fuels and biomass,compared to 60 billion tons currently consumed.The planet cannot maintain such increase in demand for resources without serious consequences for man and the ecosystems.

 

At the moment,if all countries utilizes resources in proportion to those being consumed by the United States,we will need seven planets like the earth,if all countries consumes resources in proportion to those consumed by Europe,they will need three planets like earth.

 

Considering reproducible resources, according to estimates by the Global Footprint Network, humanity today, as a whole, uses the equivalent of 1.3 planets. This means that the earth needs 1 year and 4 months to reproduce what we use in one year.

 

The result of this is to the collapse of fisheries resources, the reduction of surface covered by forests, degradation of freshwater, increasing emissions of pollutants and waste-generation that leds to climate change. This causes conflicts and wars over resources, mass migration, famine and epidemics

 

According to a study commissioned and published by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the damage caused by global climate change could cost the economy of South America some 100,000 million dollars per year until 2050.

 

Given that South America produces only 11% of global emissions of greenhouse gases, it shows an area highly vulnerable to climate change as dependent on its natural resources.

The report also stated that by 2050 there will be a significant loss of agricultural exports in the region to tune of 30,000 metric tons and 52 billion dollars. In essence, according to the IDB such losses could result in limitation of the possibilities of economic development of the continent, and could worsen access to natural resources.

 

Considering the mineral resources and fossil fuels, the rapid increase in consumption leads to rapid depletion of the more superficial resources,this will in turn lead to a significant increase in the cost of extraction and progressive unwillingness to extract many other materials.

 

Industrial development and its planetary extension was guided only by finding opportunities easier and less expensive, and its growth was not accompanied by a progressive qualitative change with the reduction of resources used and the rational use of the proportionality of their various areas of the world.

 

If we consider only transportation, a major cause of greenhouse gas emissions and massive consumption of fossil resources, we discover that for over a century man has not been able to improve or innovate on the technology of internal combustion engine,this has stimulated the search for new renewable fuels such as biomass and hydrogen,even obstructing the important experiences of biofuels.

 

If we consider the human advantage that should be benefited from this development, we notice also the negative effects of the same mode of production.

The World Health Organization predicts that by 2020 depression will be the second leading cause of disability in the world. According to the Association of Canadian insurance companies about 40% of disability benefits are identified with mental health problems. The annual cost related to these issues in Canada exceeds $ 33 billion.

In Italy, the predicted damage cost to labor in 2012 is estimated to be 51.9 billion euros(about 3.06 of GDP), whereas a reduction in the share of undeclared work, 12% below the objective of the Community Strategy, which foresees a decrease of 25% standardized incidence rates of accidents in the period 2007 - 2012

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According to the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, in Europe, every year 4.9 million people had an accident with more than three days of incapacity, the cost of this impact between 2.6 and 3.8 GDP for each country.

In the European Union about 1 billion 250 million days are lost due to health problems at work.

In Latin America there are approximately 30 million injuries annually, with about  240,000 deaths, the International Labor Organization estimates that about 17.5 million children under 14 years of age are working, 22,000 of whom die each year due to injury.

 

Our task 

Our commitment and goal is to disseminate information of our management system,methods and tools to help all businesses to join in this new logical development.

After these financial crisis, the increase in procurement costs and the challenges of "green" will be the new obstacle to which companies have to be prepared.

We will be at their side to help them.

It is important that you understand that we are not in an ordinary and time-consuming process: the way the financial crisis exploded teaches that jumping ahead is difficult, but it must be rapid.

 

The problem are not the commentators, who are making diplomatic statements based on politically positive or negative declaration.In the coming years reality will force all economies to cope with limited resourcesand the need  for a quick and substantial change in the mode of production.

There is going to be financial warfare among banks and during this period there will be no need for military war: the production apparatus,the billions of producerswho populate the world markets,will enter into this new logical methods  and this will be compatible with the budget of the planet.