Brazil's journey from the Earth Summit to Rio +20

The 1992 Rio Earth Summit brought about a cultural shift as citizens and governments alike became increasingly aware of the need to protect the environment as economies progress. The summit led to the formulation of legal and institutional frameworks to protect the environment, and we have seen improvements in many environmental indicators, such as the banning of lead in gasoline and a significant increase in natural protected areas. Nonetheless, we are still failing to mainstream environmental issues across sectoral policies and programmes and environmental quality is worsening in many areas. The lack of a coherent approach has had clearly negative impacts, one of the most obvious examples being the persistence of subsidies for fossil-fuel-based energy in many countries. The author of this introductory chapter draws on lessons from her own country, Brazil, which has made significant strides towards sustainable development. She calls for a green economy focus that: links the environment and the economy considers medium and long-term needs and challenges and recognises the diversity of countries, their differing levels of development and the inequalities of wealth distribution among nations. Such an approach, however, is not a natural market tendency – specific public policies will be needed if we are to green our economies.