? Green Cross International
? Club of Rome
? Earth Charter International

President Mikhail Gorbachev was urged at the 1992 Earth Summit to create a ?Red Cross for the environment?. 20 years later, Green Cross International returns to Brazil as the unique civil society organization launched at the Rio Earth Summit that continues carrying the Rio flag to this day. Green Cross, joined by eminent partners from the Club of Rome and Earth Charter International, will stage a side event to share learnings from the last 20 years and make the case for urgent and concerted action to avert the threat of dangerous climate change and environmental degradation by addressing its underlying causes.



Interventions by distinguished personalities and experts from the worlds of politics, business and civil society will demonstrate the opportunities and co-benefits from effective action to avert these risks by moving onto a path of truly sustainable development. Most importantly, the panel will suggest broad lines of priority and action to preserve a stable climate and viable environment by building new resource-efficient, sustainable societies and economies of the future.

The side event organized by Green Cross, The Club of Rome and Earth Charter International will see distinguished personalities and experts from the worlds of politics, business and civil society show, on the basis of learnings from the last 20 years, the opportunities and co-benefits from effective action to avert the threats of dangerous climate change and environmental degradation by moving onto a path of truly sustainable development. Most importantly, the panel will suggest broad lines of priority and action to preserve a stable climate and viable environment by building the new resource-efficient, sustainable societies and economies of the future.

Green Cross International has a historically significant link to the Rio process, as it was during the 1992 Earth Summit that President Mikhail Gorbachev was mandated to start an ?international Green Cross that offers its assistance to States in ecological trouble.? With offices in over 30 countries and international programmes that are active globally, Green Cross focuses its action on addressing the multi-faceted and interlinked challenges of security, poverty and environmental degradation through a combination of advocacy and practical projects.

Green Cross also provides the platform for the Climate Change Task Force, an initiative of President Gorbachev to bring together a small but diverse group of eminent scientists, practitioners and experts from developed and developing countries, who use their knowledge, experience and worldwide networks to focus attention on the crucial issue of climate change within a broad economic, social and political context. The objectives of the Task Force are to help "re-calibrate" the international response to climate change and environmental degradation, and build the critical mass and political will for deep-rooted societal change capable of containing and then reversing the effects of climate change.

The Club of Rome, which commissioned 40 years ago its seminal The Limits to Growth Report, was founded in 1968 as an informal association of independent leading personalities from politics, business and science, men and women who are long-term thinkers interested in contributing in a systemic interdisciplinary and holistic manner to a better world. The Club of Rome members share a common concern for the future of humanity and the planet. In the lead-up to Rio+20, it has undertaken a new study to mark the 40th anniversary of The Limits to Growth, titled 2052 ? The World in 40 Years.

The Earth Charter, also rooted in the Rio process, launched by President Gorbachev and Maurice Strong, and led by Earth Charter International, is a declaration of fundamental principles for building a just, sustainable and peaceful world. It provides an inclusive ethical vision which seeks to inspire in all peoples a new sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility for the human family and the larger living world.

During this side-event these organizations will provide a powerful and coherent case for urgent global action to overcome the challenges posed by climate change to the future of humanity.