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In an effort to provide a range of different voices and views on key issues as momentum builds towards the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), also known as “Rio+20,” NGLS is pleased to share with readers the second edition of its “Road to Rio” e-newsletter. Readers will find a range of opinion pieces, interviews and thought-provoking articles on some of the main issues at hand, as well as reports and resources from the UN system and civil society. Comments and suggestions are welcome at ngls@unctad.org and ngls@un.org.

**The opinions, views and ideas appearing in “Road to Rio” are those of the authors and do not represent an endorsement by NGLS or any other part of the UN system.

September brings a change in seasons, which are always good times to pause and reflect on progress made and what lies on the road ahead. Given that this is The Road to Rio, it is worth spending a moment to take stock and to identify important markers ahead.

Since June, a number of meetings have taken place, whether at the regional, sub-regional level or global level, that will help shape the preparatory process leading into Rio+20.

On 20 July, the Security Council held a day-long open debate on the impact of climate change on the maintenance of international peace and security – the second time since the issue was first debated in April 2007. Over 65 Member States took the floor, examining the role the Council could play in international efforts to address climate change, as well as the implications of climate change in terms of insecurity and conflict.

From 3-5 September, over 1,500 participants from civil society, international organizations, governments and other actors met in Bonn, Germany, for the 64th DPI/NGO Conference to gather fresh ideas and proposals for the upcoming negotiations on the agenda of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20).

On the theme “Making Trade and Finance Work for People and the Planet,” UNCTAD’s third Public Symposium organized with NGLS was an opportunity to bridge discussions on preparations for Rio+20 and ongoing debates on financial, monetary and trade reforms in the wake of the global economic crisis triggered in 2008.

In this interview, NGLS speaks with Andrey Vasilyev, Deputy Executive Secretary for UNECE, about his experience in Rio in 1992 during the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development.

The Missing Pillar: How Governments Can Scale Responsible Business Innovations to Achieve Sustainable Economic Governance

By working together, non-governmental organizations and businesses have made some strides towards sustainable development, but as Jem Bendell explains, at Rio+20 governments need to join them.

The twelfth meeting of the UN Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea (New York, 20-24 June) focused on progress made with respect to sustainable development goals set at previous UN summits and assessed the implementation of the Convention on the Law of the Sea.

In this think piece, Sustainable World Initiative argues that in order to make improvements to the International Framework for Sustainable Development (IFFSD), Sustainability Evaluation and Reporting (SER) is critically needed – a process that would assess total human resource demands and compares these demands with the capacity of natural systems to supply them on a sustainable basis.

NGLS interviews Cyprien Walupakah Wangoy, President of the Administrative Council of “Groupe-Ecos,” an NGO located in the City of Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that initiated the “Programme Ecosystème 2020” (Ecosystem Programme 2020), a programme of massive reforestation.

UN-DESA has launched its World Economic and Social Survey 2011, which focuses this year on the “great green technological transformation” that is needed to continue economic progress in an environmentally responsible way, noting that “business as usual” is not an option.

UNRISD is organizing a conference entitled “Green Economy and Sustainable Development: Bringing Back the Social Dimension,” to be held in Geneva from 10-12 October. It will create a forum for analysis aimed at developing a conceptual and policy framework that will position social dimensions at the centre of green economy and sustainable development. Policy reports and other publications will inform the UNCSD 2012 (Rio+20) preparatory process and subsequent policy discussions.

“Emerging Issues” is an important topic on the Rio+20 agenda. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) wishes to invite NGOs and other stakeholders to participate in the 2011 “UNEP Survey on Emerging Issues,” from 13 to 30 September 2011.