The application deadline is 10th June, 2012. You will be informed about your application after the 12th.

The more precise you are in your answers, the more likely we will get an impression of you, which will help us to understand your passion for being a Student Reporter. We are really looking forward to get inspired by you and meet you in Beijing. You can click around this site and our social media links to get a feel for what live conference blogging is like, and understand what we expect from our reporters.

Student Reporters will receive free registration for the conferences, accommodation and lunch every day, as well as a stipend of 200 CHF to help cover travel costs. There will be one or more team dinners in Beijing, possibly with a conference speaker. Additionally, Student Reporters must attend daily meetings during the conference and are required to take part in pre-conference virtual team building. All Student Reporters must arrive in Beijing by 19th October, attend a training session on the 20th, and stay with the team in Beijing until 24th October.

If you have any questions, concerns or comments, please include them in the form below or email Aishwarya Nair at nairaish(at)sas.upenn.edu. We’re looking forward to reading your application!

Successes in Improving Environmental and Economic Sustainability

One of the first speakers at the conference was Rajat Kapur, the Ecomagination Project Manager at GE.  According to the ecomagination website, “ecomagination is GE’s commitment to imagine and build innovative solutions to today’s environmental challenges while driving economic growth.”  He explained at the conference how GE uses innovation so the company does not need to choose between economics and the environment.  One strategy that they use is Life Cycle Assessment.  It focuses on measuring the environmental impacts of a product over its entire lifecycle. This information is then used to incorporate sustainability into the design of products at the research and development stage.  This strategy benefits environmental and economic sustainability because it incorporates these ideas at the start of the process.

Later, Edwin Keh, a lecturer at Wharton and former COO of WalMart Global Procurement, gave examples from WalMart.  Keh’s team researched product returns at WalMart.  Although returned items may not seem like a focus for improving sustainability, fewer returns could lead to significant benefits because returned products represent a waste of materials, transportation fuel, and shelf space.  WalMart found that some of the most common reasons for returns were that the product was too complicated or the product did not function correctly as the result of a miscommunication.  For example, many consumers returned one product that converted videos from VHS to DVD format because there were too many connector cords to figure out.  A simpler design for this product would have made it easier for the consumer to use and resulted in fewer returns.  Miscommunication was a problem for an inflatable pool toy that consumers returned when it did not float correctly.  This occurred because the product was made at a location that classified it as a toy and did not test for floatation.  Problems such as this can be improved by implementing changes at the research and development stage (to design user-friendly products) and then communicating with those down the supply chain (to ensure proper quality testing procedures).  Solving these types of problems reduces costs, reduces waste, and ultimately makes the company more environmentally and economically sustainable.

Another speaker was Tom Carpenter from International Paper, who spoke about strategies used by his company to make transportation more efficient.  Many people first think of improved fuel efficiency to improve transportation, but the more effective strategies are to decrease the number of miles traveled, alter the modes of transportation used, and increase the utilization of capacity (by volume and weight).  International Paper, for example, fills their trucks to the maximum capacity allowed by law and uses rail over truck whenever possible because of increased efficiency.  Increasing the transportation efficiency in a business reduces fuel costs and emits fewer carbon emissions into the atmosphere, making it a strategy that benefits both environmental and economic sustainability.

Challenges and Future Outlook

There are various strategies for businesses to become more environmentally sustainable and support their bottom line by focusing on the supply chain.  However, it was said several times throughout the conference that current actions primarily focus on “low-hanging fruit.”  What does this mean for the future?  When the more easily improved aspects of a supply chain are already addressed, greening the supply chain may become more difficult.  I suspect that many of these changes will require greater structural changes, greater amounts of initial investment, and ideas that may not seem as obviously beneficial and will face more resistance to become implemented.

At the same time, however, green businesses are becoming more of a mainstream concept that is desired by both businesses and consumers.  As a result, greening businesses will become easier in some ways.  Alice Henley of the NRDC explained how greening sports events is an important way to spread sustainability because it infiltrates sustainable ideas into mainstream American culture.  Although there will be challenges to make businesses more environmentally and economically sustainable, I believe that it will continue to be done in many sectors, especially as consumers demand it more.
Have you heard of particularly interesting ways that businesses have become more sustainable?  What are the biggest challenges for businesses?  Post your comments below!

Johan has a banking background. He was working for one of Sweden’s biggest banks for 15 years before he recognized and accepted the entrepreneurial side of him wanting to explore and make a positive change in society. He quit his job and after not so long, the MFI team found him and together they built the business model the bank is pursuing now.

The challenge – the unbanked in Sweden

Johan mentions that in one of the world’s most egalitarian country, 10 % of the Swedish population is unbankable and that this segment is costing the Swedish society many kronor every year. “The problem is”, he says, “that the clients we have are not familiar with the bank-lingo which makes it difficult for them to negotiate loans in a traditional bank. Likewise, the established banks are not used to seeing them as a profitable clients and therefore, there is  a lack of trust between the two parties”.  As in any country, Sweden has  a problem with social exclusion, something that is obvious when looking, for example, at the probability of an immigrant getting access to finance in relation to a native Swede.

The role of Mikrofinans Institutet

That is where the MFI comes in. Mikrofinans institutet granted their first loan in November to a Kenyan woman selling educational material on the web for Kenyan schools. At the moment, they have seven clients in total and the expectations for the future is to have 200 clients in one year. The market for these kind of banks will be growing. Johan believes that within five years, they will be facing hard competition. He believes there to be some players just waiting for the market to get ready.

As Johan returns to his mission on SOCAP, to look for investors, the next session starts. The multidisciplinary nature of the stakeholders gathered at Malmö Högskola today gives the visitor a good idea of all the activities on the field at the moment. For instance, impact investment is not only providing safe drinking water to African farmers, but also giving loans to senior immigrant women.

Know your audience

Harrabin has been reporting on the state of the environment since 1986 – seeing firsthand the tragic bleached coral reefs of the Maldives to the breaking icebergs of Greenland. Despite this, he is also deeply aware of the difference between his role as a BBC journalist reporting to a worldwide audience and that of an environmental activist. For our student reporter online journal, we have a slightly easier job with a more targeted global audience and subject focus in business sustainability and environmental and welfare economics. However, we also have to be aware of biases that we may be using to approach these issues. For example, when reporting on international development issues, we should be careful to maintain journalistic objectivity.  Too often, economics coverage of environmental issues can promote just another form of what Michael Goldman, a sociologist from University of Minnesota, calls Green Neoliberalism: “a fashionable development ideology that packages poor nations’ public services, natural resources and environmental diversity as undervalued economic assets to be profitably managed and conserved through the market” (See his book, and article). In summary, we should be critically aware of the opportunities and challenges that come with our audience and tailor our posts accordingly.

Find a niche of the conference based on your interest and audience

There are thousands of blogs and online journals covering the Rio summit, and at the site, there will be tens of thousands of journalists, delegates, and representatives. As Tim, our editor, said “it is our program approach that we give you the freedom to write about whatever you are most passionate about within the field of Sustainable Development, specifically in the nexus of a) economics b) business and c) the education of management and economics. The resulting challenge is the missing but necessary focus in such a setting like the UN Conference.”

Report consistently and persistently

Once our audience and conference niche are realized, we have to be consistent and persistent in covering it. In his career, Harrabin has interviewed (and upset) many key famous figures, including Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and Al Gore. His persistence in providing a balanced view of the climate debate has inevitably been criticized by both climate skeptics and activists, and has even led to false allegations of internal bribery and lobbying – events that have affected him both personally and professionally. This controversiality may or may not be present at Rio+20. Large international conferences, with the number of different parties involved and the world’s eye watching, can be “an exercise in polite agreement,” as observed by one of our student reporters Michael regarding the World Water Forum 2012.  We will have to persuade our interviewees to delve deeply into the controversial debates and focus our writing to address the usually implicit, contentious and complex issues that may be glossed over by the major media.

Familiarize yourself with the terminology

With his experience in repeatedly covering large diplomatic conferences, Leite advised us to really know the key acronyms (comprehensive list here). Everyone talks in them, and even experienced reporters can get lost in them quickly. In addition, with the number of side events, both on-site and off-site all over Rio de Janeiro, it will be beneficial to learn about the organizations behind the acronyms and try to get access early, especially those related to our individual conference niche. Some side events that a couple of our reporters already have committed to covering are the Corporate Sustainability Forum, STI for Sustainable Development, ISEE Conference and the UN PRME Global Forum (See? Acronyms already…).

Familiarize yourself with expectations of the conference

Even though the Brazilian press is in generally pessimistic about the outcomes of Rio (as are sustainability experts), we should read the zero draft of the outcome document. Leite and I discussed a few other topics and questions that the press will be paying attention to regarding the conference:

• Should there be a UN-supported environmental organization, like the UNEP but larger?
• How do we set achievable, country-specific goals that the general public can observe and adopt? The millennium goals are a good example, much of which has been achieved already. For Rio+20, some countries have proposed Sustainable Development Goals to build on the success of the millenium goals.
• Many reporters and the public have lost faith in multinational conversations like this, after the disappointments of Copenhagen, Durban, and etc. Corporates and the private sector have a significant presence at Rio+20 – some see this is as a new hope, some see it as a “corporate sell out”.
• Why does Brazil not have a stronger voice, given its economic and environmental progress? They have shown that they can decouple economic development with environmental degradation.

We have much to look forward to. In spirit of reporting uncertain, complex but nonetheless crucial issues, I leave with you a quote by Margaret Thatcher from 1988: “We have unwittingly begun a massive experiment with the system of the planet itself” and with Harrabin’s recent addendum “…and with humanity, too. Maybe we’ll be ok.”

Leading a team of student reporters is certainly not an easy task.  Funding, selection of students, training sessions, and much more has to be done before the start of the conference. In order to learn what it is like to be a team leader and a student reporter, I interviewed Caroline D’Angelo. Caroline is reporter-in-residence and editor for the oikos Student Reporter program. She led a team of 12 student reporters from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Richmond at the World Water Forum 2012 in Marseille, France.

 
In the Skype interview I had with Caroline, she outlines:

• a typical day of a student reporter,
• tells us the highlights of this conference,
• how she achieved effective communication under time constraints,
• gives advice to future student reporters, and
• shares with us the best practices for writing posts and interviewing.

She also makes clear that: “The best that you can do as a student reporter is to be willing to try and to be able and willing to work extremely hard. You are going to be learning things in a very intensive environment, so having an open mind is crucial. You are not going to sleep much during the program, but if you recognize it as a great opportunity to network and to get better at communicating, you will have a great experience.”

Listen to the interview below to learn more about Caroline and her experience as a team leader.

The Nile Basin Discourse (NBD) is a civil society network with a membership of more than 750 organizations from 11 countries within the Nile Basin Region. It provides knowledge and builds capacity to strengthen the voice of civil society organizations within the Nile Basin Region. The NBD has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Nile Basin Initiative, a coalition of  ten countries’ governments along the Nile, and participates in high level meetings. The NBD has developed a unique voice in the Initiative’s goal to advance  benefit sharing.

“Benefit sharing,” as described by the NBD, aims to divert attention from contentious issues such as water allocation, thereby preventing futile competition in the region. The Nile’s water resources serve as entry points for broader and deeper transboundary and regional cooperation, as envisioned by the NBI. Benefit sharing focuses on various ways to improve cooperation such as optimal use of water, poverty eradication, promoting economic integration, sustainable resources management and development, and cooperation to seek win-win gains.

I interviewed the NBD’s dynamic Regional Manager Ms. Abby Onencan at the World Water Forum. She introduced her organization, and among other things, shared her views on the Cooperative Framework Agreement and South Sudan’s entry into the Nile Basin Initiative. Ms. Onencan said that benefit sharing experiences from other river basins was one solution she would take home. She also discussed NBD’s proposed solution – the construction of the Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam and the assertions that it opens up opportunities for building trust, peace and cooperation in the region.

As parts of the interview are affected by background noise, I have drafted the questions and answers to those sections below.

Between 01:16 and 01:29

Question:  How does the Nile Basin Discourse build bridges between Government and Civil Society?

Answer: We have a Memorandum of Understanding with Nile Basin Initiative which comprises of the 11 members’ Governments.

Between 03:35 and 03:53

Question: What do you think would be the role of South Sudan in the Nile Basin Initiative? Are there Civil Society Organizations whom you can partner with?

Answer: We have opened an office in South Sudan.

Marissa Presenting on the University of Pennsylvania's "Green Campus Partnership"

The delegation from the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) had 27 students from the Master of Environmental Studies (M.E.S.) and Master of Science in Applied Geoscience programs in attendance at the World Water Forum. At the end of the week, some of us from Penn were invited to present solutions emerging from our institution.

On Friday morning, three classmates and I highlighted a few water-related sustainability initiatives currently in place at Penn. Rupal Prasad began with an overview of the University’s Green Campus Parternship and the structural layout of our nearly 200-year old campus. I then described our unique outreach programs and explained to the young audience how exactly we connect with our undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and staff. Since American college and university students generally move away from home and onto higher education campuses at the age of 18, it is important that they learn and engage in a sustainable lifestyle to carry forward after graduation.

Penn has several commitments to sustainability on campus. Penn’s President Amy Gutmann was the first Ivy League president to sign the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment. More than 600 colleges and universities have joined this commitment, which seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on college campuses through unique Climate Action Plans. The seven targets of Penn’s Climate Action Plan (C.A.P.) are: learning sustainability, conserving energy, reducing emissions, minimizing waste, designing green, local foods, and purchasing pratices.

A few of our key traditions that incorporate the C.A.P. goals include:

• Move-In Green, held annually in August, gives upperclass environmental leaders the opportunity to educate incoming students around recycling on campus, ways to reduce their carbon footprint, and opportunities to get involved in sustainability initiatives at Penn.
• Penn Eco-Reps: students and staff that work within the College Houses, Greek chapters, departments, and offices to develop educational events, activities, and campaigns aimed at supporting the University’s water conservation strategies, alternative transportation, consumer choices, and more.
• PennMOVES, held annually in since 2008, has collected close to 300,000 pounds of clothes, furniture, etc. that students choose not to bring when they leave campus in the summer. These belongings are diverted from landfills and sold to individuals and organizations in our local community; proceeds are donated to Goodwill Industries.

Penn also has over 20 student-run sustainability organizations, which aim to increase campus awareness of global environmental issues across the Penn community and throughout the world.  One of these organizations was presented by Abby Waldorf, who spoke about Penn’s emergent wH2O Journal, a new initiative at the University that publishes an academic journal on gender and water issues each year (first issue will be published April 27). Finally, the Editor for the Oikos/Penn Student Reporter team at the WWF, Caroline D’Angelo, discussed what oikos international is, and Penn’s involvement with the student-led non-profit organization at the WWF. Twelve Penn MES students were on this reporter team and they interviewed experts in the field, wrote blog posts and used social media. Penn is also in the process of opening the first North American chapter of oikos.

This knowledge-sharing prompted discussions between campus representatives on best practices and challenges in promoting sustainability in colleges and universities. The journal was lauded as an important mechanism to focus attention on women and water issues. And of course, the Student Reporter program itself is an important solution for global sustainability issues, to help environmental and economics students learn how to communicate complex environmental issues to a broader public.

Panelists discussing the Nile at the WWF

The Nile is the world’s longest river. It is shared between Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (See map below). Except for South Sudan, all of the above countries are members of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) – a cooperative partnership formed in 1999. Six upstream members of the NBI signed a “Cooperative Framework Agreement” that includes Articles addressing issues such as water allocation. One can imagine that such a framework is needed to assist water management efforts between so many nations. It serves as an important mechanism to address water issues due to increasing development, demand and scarcity.

The NBI members have not resolved their primary dispute, however. Before the Cooperative Framework Agreement was authored, colonial water agreements benefited Egypt and Sudan with large water allocations. Now, both nations object to Article 14 of the Cooperative Framework Agreement as it alters their historic share, and have therefore not signed it.

84% of the Nile water originates in Ethiopia before it reaches Sudan and Egypt. As Egypt receives the largest share of water from the Nile, it has locked horns with Ethiopia when the latter demanded a higher share in the past . Based on such knowledge, scholars have speculated increased regional tensions. On World Water Day this year, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton unveiled an unclassified State Department report titled “Global Water Security: Intelligence Community Assessment”. This report warns of impending consequences of water scarcity in the Nile basin such as increased regional tensions over water use, degraded food security, and reduced resiliency to floods and droughts by the year 2040. Even though these predictions rely on the best data, it is reasonable to assume that inherent uncertainties exist when predicting the future.

At the World Water Forum, I got a glimpse of Egypt and Ethiopia’s evolving relationship. I attended a panel organized by NIRAS, a Nordic consulting company and hosted at the Finnish Pavilion titled “Modalities of Water Resource Monitoring and Information Sharing in order to Optimize Benefits Generated in the Eastern Nile”. It became clear to me that cooperation promoted through benefit sharing and integration will alleviate many of their problems over the long run.

And here is why – the Panel included Nile Basin Initiative’s Dr. Ahmed Khalid, who remarked that the NBI is now strong enough as an institution to manage challenges in the Nile Basin. As a sign of progress in the region, Dr. Khalid highlighted fast-tracked dams and interconnections projects between Ethiopia and Sudan. He emphasized that benefit sharing led to the joint identification, preparation, and implementation of projects. The panelist from Ethiopia’s Ministry of Water and Energy, Mr. Fekahmed Negash, recognized pollution and environmental degradation of the Highlands as serious problems but was quick to point out the various opportunities that exist to reduce pollution, reduce evaporation from dams downstream, and to increase efficiency of irrigation systems. He praised technological  improvements to collect data. On cooperation, he said that a better relationship exists at the highest political level between the NBI countries, particularly on the issue of  building The Great Renaissance Dam.

The panelist from Egypt’s Ministry of Irrigation and Water, Mr. Mohamed Abdul, talked about Egypt’s groundwater resources being degraded, and the lack of rainfall in Egypt that increased Egypt’s reliance on the Nile as a source of water. On relations with other nations, Mr. Abdul stressed the importance to boost upstream-downstream water and economic cooperation in the Nile Basin.

By focusing their rhetoric on economic cooperation and capacity building, the panelists shed light on the changing discourse within the Nile Basin. New partnerships are evolving as Ethiopia is reportedly reaching out to Sudan to jointly own the Great Renaissance Dam. Civil society represented by the Nile Basin Discourse is developing an instrumental role as it deepens public voice and participation to foster cooperation between nations. Technology solutions are emerging. The Egyptian Gazette noted that Egypt’s scientists have developed cheap new technology dependent on solar cells to reduce the cost of water desalination from LE10 to LE4 per cubic meter. Such strides in technology and active cooperation will maintain stability in the region over the long run and untangle up the blue.

David Zetland has an argument that he'd like you to hear.

When I meet up with David Zetland, he’s chatting up two Forum attendees over complimentary drinks and light hors d’ouvres from the Brazilian Pavilion at Parc Chanot’s Palais Phoceen.  Usually the center of attention by virtue of a lightning quick wit and polymathic knowledge, Zetland is skewering a newly-formed NGO designed to help investment banks and other financiers assess risks associated with climate change… “Which makes perfect sense,” proclaims a sardonic Zetland, “because NGO’s are so adept at evaluating investment risks and investment banks have no idea.”

Zetland, an American, is a Senior Water Economist at Wageningen University in the Netherlands where he’s involved in number of projects, including an EU-sponsored study evaluating the use of economic instruments for promoting efficiency and sustainable water management in Europe.  He’s the author of a recent book, “The End of Abundance: Economic Solutions to Water Scarcity,” and pens an iconoclastic  daily blog, called Aguanomics, focused on the political economy of water.  Unabashed, he claims to have plans to return to America someday in order to run for Congress in California.  He’ll let ‘the market’ decide which district by allowing disgruntled constituents to register their eagerness for a new representative at an online site.  This theory of enabling individuals with market tools that give them greater control over the decision making process encapsulates Zetland’s views on the way the world ought to work.

Well-tanned, outspoken and undeniably cool, Zetland is to water economics what John Gardener was to modern American literature.  He even rides a motorcycle, which brought him from the Netherlands to Southern France for the conference, stopping at the homes of old friends along the way.

He once so flustered Executive Director of Food and Water Watch, Wenonah Hauter that she abruptly left the stage of a debate before proceedings concluded, rushing down the aisle, claiming an imminent flight departure.  At a panel forum on the looming global water crisis, Zetland-the-audience-member reaches for the Q&A mic and gives a shockingly bullet proof and well-reasoned explanation as to why there really isn’t a global water crisis at all.  Beyond exposing alarmist arguments and championing the incontrovertible logic of market mechanisms – Zetland believes in the necessity of strong protections for nature and ecosystems.  “And you must do that,” claims an emphatic Zetland, “in some bureaucratic way called ‘we care about this river and we’re going to keep water in the river.’”

You have to take care of environmental health first by ensuring enough water goes to ecosystems, says Zetland.  These ecosystems, in turn, provide us with important benefits and services that are difficult to value.  “The water that’s above that base flow…it’s okay to use that for other human uses whether its irrigation or drinking water.”  But it’s important to let those uses compete for water through pricing or a market, says Zetland.  Given a limited quantity of a resource, people will make wise decisions about how best to allocate that resource. Fee structures that recover system and scarcity costs and market mechanisms that put a price on water will actually improve water services and extend coverage to the very poor, contends Zetland.  This flys in the face of theories advanced by activists that claim that pricing mechanisms will effectively exclude poor people from water. These activists fail to acknowledge that lack of pricing and cost recovery often equates to a lack of service for the poor they are trying to help.

A problem arises when, instead of individuals in a market deciding how to allocate water, some third party tries to direct where water goes.  Often that third party is government.  It’s an insidious maneuver, believes Zetland, who sees politicians and the politically powerful holding society hostage by preventing a fair and equitable system for access to and acquisition of water.  Political forces take advantage of the agricultural sector’s reluctance to change and make it difficult to transfer water from one sector to another.  On its face, this provides farmers with a guarantee to the water they have traditionally enjoyed.  In reality, it sets up politicians as a class of dishonest middle men, leveraging water for votes and power.  Water is an important economic input. Preventing it from moving to sectors where it can produce the greatest value creates tremendous inefficiency and may actually deny farmers their right to best utilize the water to which they are entitled.

With at least 70 percent of human-directed water going to agriculture globally, any discussion of water needs to engage farmers and address traditional but inefficient modes of agricultural irrigation.  Zetland believes that agricultural inefficiency can be corrected.  “I’m quite an optimist about farmers and water because if farmers can make money by turning water into food, they can certainly make money by turning water into money,” he said.  By selling water to downstream cities and industry, farmers could turn a healthy profit and still grow crops by using remaining water more efficiently.  But Politicians would never let that happen, says Zetland, because “politicians do not want to give farmers clear property rights in water; they prefer that the farmers continue to depend on them for water, which means more `campaign contributions’ – or what the man on the street would call bribes.”

He dances through explanations, setting up scenarios and making analogies, reducing complex economic and political interactions into “you and I go into a restaurant and we only have $20.”  One might accuse him of obfuscation or oversimplification, but if you slow down the tape, and there’s no slick attempts to mislead; just an energized mind trying to reduce complex problems to the simplest terms possible.

“I’ve gotten it down to a bumper sticker,” says Zetland, sliding a 4”x12” blue sticker between the bottles of beer on our table: “Some Water for Free…Pay for More.”  A cartoon droplet separates steps one and two of this simple prescription. It’s an idea that’s catching on and one that should satisfy those advocating a human right to water.  Why should NGOs persist in their deep-seated fear of market mechanisms?  Perhaps it is due to a fear of the unfamiliar.

The biggest challenge for anti-corporate crusaders in dealing with Zetland and his arguments is that at the end of the day, he’s advocating for the same causes as they are – water for humanity and water for nature.  But instead of viewing corporations as the enemy and politicians as canny managers promoting efficiency and well-being, he puts his faith in the logic of individuals and carefully structured market mechanisms that empower people to make the right decisions.

I believe in ”the power of words”. If I were to choose a key word to describe the 6th European Organic Congress in Copenhagen, I would choose a circle. Not because of the circle being a symbol for perfection though. I have never managed to draw a perfect circle and believe nothing is perfect. Nevertheless, the struggle for perfection already creates a chance for improvement. There is such a chance in the case of Common Agricultural Policy since there are people willing to strive for perfection.

Common Agricultural Policy is the system of European Union subsidies designed to preserve rural heritage, provide farmers with a reasonable standard of living and consumers with quality food at fair prices. Currently the subsidies represent almost a half of the EU’s budget. Yet, according to legislative proposals due to come into force after 2013, the current spending share is  projected to fall significantly to about 1/3 of the European budget.  In contrast with the decrease in the total sum of direct payments, the share of direct payments addressed to organic farmers and growers  is to be on the increase to help tackling environmental and economic problems facing agriculture. A challenge to improve and align the Common Agricultural Policy with the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth has been set.

The first to take the challenge was Jerzy Bogdan Plewa, who promised to “remove the question mark”, referring to the title of the opening session of  the 6th European Organic Congress – “CAP post 2013- greener, smarter, fairer?” . Sounds perfect. Nevertheless, improving Common Agricultural Policy alone still seems to be an attempt to square the circle. The problem is simply too complex. What is needed is common action.

The Circle - key word of the conference

The grounds for the opinion are three circles presented during the closing session by Ybele Hoogeveen. The circles are the symbol for complexity of the system. The first circle represents the ecosystem described as the natural capital of renewable resources. The second circle is a symbol of the economy based on producing goods and delivering services. The third circle is reserved for human well-being that combines social and human capital. The circles overlap: a part of human activities are economic activities; the activities require certain natural resources: food, water, energy but may be performed only within constraints set to society and economy by the natural environment.

In the point of intersection of the circles there is a place for agriculture. And in the point of intersection of environmental, economic and social policy there is a place for agricultural policy. Adding the word common calling for both common sense and common knowledge makes improving the common agricultural policy be even more a complex issue to discuss.

According to Arie van den Brand, to make the complex simple, we need to “develop a common language”. It seems that I am not the only person that believes in the power of words. Nevertheless, the key word chosen by the president of ARC 2020 was different. Arie van den Brand suggested that collective should be the most important word of the common language, since it is collective work that will help moving one step forward towards greener, smarter and fairer Common Agricultural Policy. A great example of such a common action could be the ARC 2020 itself: a multi-stakeholder platform of over 150 organizations was set up to ensure communication between civil society and European Union institutions. What is the main message to communicate? “Paradigm shift in agriculture” – said Arie van den Brand on behalf of the collective demanding full sustainability in European Agriculture by 2020.

Perfect though it sounds, the step towards a bigger change is still complex. Yet, in the complexity Christopher Stopes saw the strength. And I can see the strength in the circle of passionate individuals that gathered during the 6th European Organic Congress to accomplish the mission set by the president of IFOAM EU Group in the opening speech of the congress: “to present a voice that is clear and strong enough to be heard”.

In Copenhagen I heard the voice. Trees Robijns calling from the scene that “we can make a difference” during the final discussion panel made me believe that the step towards a bigger change has already been made. During the closing panel of the 6th European Organic Congress Ybele Hoogeveen agreed that “it is a step in the right direction, but still a small step”. Current challenges require more rigorous measures to make transition towards smarter, greener and fairer Common Agricultural Policy possible.

The power of words must be transformed into the power of action. Policy makers cannot walk around in circles looking for a simple solution to a complex problem. If I were to suggest the first step for the political circle of the European Comission, I would suggest taking common action together with the collective that gathered during the 6th European Organic Congress. Since the collective is willing to strive for perfection, improving Common Agricultural Policy no longer seems to be an attempt to square a circle.  And I strongly believe in the final words that were written.