European Union

As Brazil will host the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD or Rio+20) in Rio de Janeiro from 20 to 22 June 2012, Head of the EU Delegation to Guyana, Ambassador Robert Kopecký, met with Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, the Honourable Robert Persaud to discuss issues relating to a common position of the Government of Guyana and the European Union, including the Guyana Government's support for the European Union's global environmental policy.

As the two main themes of the conference are:

• Green Economy in the context of Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication and
• The Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development

In Guyana’s context, this includes the Low Carbon Development Strategy and other similar initiatives which promote a sustainable development thrust.

The European Union restated its objectives:

• To advance the global transition towards a green economy, thus promoting environmental protection, contributing to poverty eradication and stimulating low carbon and resource-efficient growth;
• To work towards clear operational targets and concrete actions at national and international level within agreed time frames;
• To advance the work on global and coherent post-2015 goals for sustainable development, also having regard to the review process of the Millennium Development Goals.

Both Guyana and the European Union see the Rio+20 event as a conference for which the green economy is a means to deliver sustainable development, including the goals of food security and poverty eradication and keeping also in the forefront the battle against Climate Change   It is hoped that Rio+20 should agree on a global agenda which should apply equally to developed and developing countries.