The Earth Charter Initiative again came together in a participatory effort to produce a set of recommendations for the Rio+20 Compilation Document. This document will be the framework document that will be debated by states’ parties at next year’s Earth Summit in Rio, also known as Rio+20. The EC Initiative was joined by several hundred other NGOs, tens of intergovernmental bodies and UN agencies, as well as around 40 national governments, which also submitted recommendations to the Compilation Document.

The EC Initiative’s submission calls for a renewed political commitment to urgent sustainable development challenges. The recommendations by the EC Initiative are as follows:

1. Express responsibility to future generations by implementing the precautionary principle and establishing Ombudspersons for Future Generations at global, national and local levels.

2. Create a green economy based on strong sustainability and adopt alternative economic indicators to GDP that include social well-being and ecological integrity.

3. Acknowledge the fundamental importance of shared ethical and spiritual values in making the transition to a sustainable way of life.

4. Adopt a sustainable development goal focused on sustainable production and consumption.

5. Ensure that proposals for a new institutional framework for sustainable development, and related global governance reforms, include a mandate of trusteeship for global common goods on behalf all peoples, the greater community of life, and future generations.

6. Ensure that all have access to quality education for sustainable ways of living.

7. Make Climate Justice a guiding principle in efforts to address global climate change, ensuring that the benefits and burdens associated with climate change are distributed equitably, with special concern for the rights of the poor, indigenous peoples, and other vulnerable peoples.

8. Provide supportive mechanisms for a Just Transition – ensuring the right to sustainable development.

The recommendation document delves more deeply into the background thinking on each of these recommendations. It can be read and downloaded from the UNCSD submissions Web site and in this link.

In addition, the following countries and organizations made recommendations referring to the use of the Earth Charter:

Member States:
Major Groups:


United Nations and IGOs: