The Flemish Institute for Technological Research (Vito) is behind the first Brussels Sustainable Development Summit (BSDS), which it is organising together with The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri) from India. International policymakers, such as Nobel Prize laureate Rajendra Pachauri and EU Commission president José Manuel Barroso, are gathering next week to discuss, define and implement action plans for a more sustainable world with representatives of companies and the non-profit sector.

The first BSDS, which takes place on 17-18 December at the Square Conference Centre near Brussels Central Station, is the result of several years of cooperation between Vito and Teri, a non-profit dealing with environmental problems. In keeping with its tagline, “Bringing the Rio+20 Agenda to Life”, the ambitious summit wants to define concrete ways to extend actions and renew the global agenda for sustainable development in the aftermath of the disappointing United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro last summer.

BSDS follows closely after Vito’s i-SUP2012 conference last spring in Bruges, which revolved around the variety of inspiring local efforts towards sustainability.

BSDS will be opened next Monday by Barroso; Flemish minister-president Kris Peeters; head of electricity giant EDF Henri Proglio; and the directors of Vito and Teri, Dirk Fransaer and Rajendra Pachauri. Pachauri is also the chairman of the influential Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Thematic workshops will lead to a political dialogue, in the presence of Prince Philippe, with the focus on forging partnerships between political authorities, private companies and non-profit organisations. The summit concludes with a public event.

Aiming for concrete results

Vito expects at least 200 participants and 40 speakers, among them Connie Hedegaard (European Commissioner for Climate Action), Elizabeth Thompson (coordinator of Rio+20), Steven Vanackere (Belgian minister for finance and sustainable development) and Peter Tom Jones (chairman of I-Cleantech Vlaanderen – the new organisation uniting the Flemish clean-tech sector).

“We are introducing the concept of Teri’s prestigious annual conference – the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit – in Europe,” says Fransaer. “Our goal is not to bring out one big statement after two days but to stimulate an open discussion by bringing different stakeholders together. In the long term, we hope this leads to concrete results such as a more energy efficient and a socially equal society that takes care of its valuable resources.”

Online BSDS Dialogues

Although most guests have not arrived in the capital yet, the summit is already well underway on the web via the “BSDS Dialogues”. These online discussion platforms identify and analyse best practices for sustainable development, gather policy recommendations from grassroots movements and set the stage for summit discussions.

The platform’s main themes are “international collaboration”, “cities and regions” and “the bio-based economy”. The BSDS Dialogues will result in a political document that will contribute to the debate with political leaders.

Throughout 2013, BSDS Dialogues organisers will follow up the project and ensure that the project’s outcomes are effectively feeding policy decisions at the European and international level. One of these organisers is The Planetworkshops, an international, independent think tank based in Paris that examines contemporary and future challenges for sustainable development.

The Planetworkshops has worked with Teri and Vito before on projects, such as Lighting a Billion Lives, which provides high-quality and cost-effective solar lamps through micro-enterprises set up in villages without electricity. It organises an annual global conference, and “we are glad that Vito is making similar efforts to spur international stakeholders into action,” says Planetworkshops co-founder George J Gendelman, an American and also founder of the International Press Syndicate. “We cannot wait any longer on UN conferences such as Rio+20 to change the current situation.”

Media in denial

The conclusions of The Planetworkshops last conference were assembled in a “white book” and contributed to Rio+20. “But it was frustrating to see how our recommendations were ignored,” states Gendelman, who will speak at BSDS. “While we demanded more input from all partners, and especially from civil society, in the end a handful of dominant nations – such as the United States and China – took the final decisions. Without global participation, we will get nowhere.”

Gendelman hopes that political leaders involved with BSDS “don’t just nod, but truly listen to the speeches and implement what they learn from the debates and from local initiatives that will be presented.” He already sees hope that this will be the case, “such as Ecuador’s recent efforts to preserve its biodiversity instead of blindly exploiting its resources.”

A former director of international operations, both at The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune in Latin American, Gendelman says he is “absolutely not” satisfied with the attitude of the international media towards global warming and sustainable initiatives. “They treat sustainable development like just another trendy issue, while in reality it is linked to all parts of society: economy, ecology, politics and culture. The media minimise its importance and its urgency.”

www.bsds.vito.be