UNITED NATIONS -- Environmentalists concerned about an apparent lack of interest leading up to U.N.-sponsored sustainable development talks this summer in Brazil say they are trying hard to push oceans issues to the forefront of the conference's agenda to address the gap.

Susan Lieberman, director of international policy at the Pew Environment Group, staged a press briefing yesterday in an attempt to get the buzz going about Rio+20, the conference this year in Rio de Janeiro taking place 20 years after a U.N. Earth summit there.

Lieberman acknowledged a perceived lack of preparation for Rio+20 among nations that will attend, but she also insisted the next three months will be crucial in terms of setting tone and negotiating a working document on key concerns to be addressed there.

Various people are trying to muscle items into the Rio+20 agenda, including former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R). Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

"There has not been the level of preparation for this conference that there was previously" in other U.N.-sponsored negotiations, she said. "We are trying to galvanize attention. ... There is still time."

But whether Rio+20 can reach the potency associated with the 1992 Earth summit remains an open question. It was in Rio 20 years ago that member nations agreed to a global warming convention that led directly to greenhouse gas emissions cuts under the Kyoto Protocol, as well as crucial work that led to the adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1993.

Amy Fraenkel, regional director of the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) in North America, admitted that the time allotted for official preparation for Rio so soon after climate talks in South Africa "has been fairly short." But she said U.N. officials have been active in the meantime.

Agenda remains a work in progress

She noted that China and Europe have hosted pre-summit talks, and UNEP recently met in Nairobi, Kenya, where Rio was the focus.

"Between now and Rio, there's a tremendous amount of work going to take place," she said, pointing out that negotiations over Rio's "zero-draft" agenda document will begin in earnest in New York this month.

"Rio is not the end point," she added. "We all should really look beyond Rio. ... It clearly can't stop there."

With that backdrop in mind, Lieberman and Lisa Speer, director of the international oceans program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, pitched oceans as a core topic that could get more attention and see real progress in Rio. Other major topics on the agenda include whether to create a World Environment Organization out of UNEP and how to finance a green economy in the developing world.

Speer said a mechanism to create international marine protected areas could begin to take shape in Rio, in addition to an agreement on how to cope with ocean acidification and tracking its progress around the globe.

"There are a number of very significant gaps in the legal regime governing the high seas," she said, pointing to data that suggest 85 percent of the world's oceans have been exploited or overfished.

Speer added that there is "very little monitoring of where ocean acidification is happening" and said she hopes language currently in the Rio zero draft on implementing an international observing network on acidification survives negotiations.

To Lieberman, oceans issues should be viewed as a matter of food security as well as environmental damage. She said the Law of the Sea should be revised to contain a legal framework for protected areas in places beyond national jurisdiction, outside 200 miles from the shore.

"We cannot wait another 20 years for Rio+40," she said.

U.S. and Russia oppose marine protection draft

Still, the political reality appears to be stacked against the environmental groups. A paragraph currently in the zero draft on starting negotiations over international marine protected areas is opposed by the United States, Russia, Japan, Norway, South Korea and Iceland, Speer said.

When pressed on that situation, Lieberman called those countries "a tough list." But she and Speer said they have the European Union and small island developing nations in their corner.

"A number of governments want to fast-track this," Lieberman said. "It's important to recognize that we're not going to save the oceans by having another negotiation."

For her part, Fraenkel said what might emerge from Rio is language meant to strengthen the scientific understanding of oceans and improve how U.N. officials monitor the high seas. She also noted that U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon is developing an oceans compact as part of his five-year agenda for his second term as chief of the United Nations.

"Oceans are absolutely going to feature prominently in the Rio meeting," she said. "This is really about opportunity and trying to make the case that we can do things differently."

'The Terminator' launches 'Sustainia'

In related news, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) popped up yesterday to help launch what he hopes will become the world's first model city based on sustainability.

The "Sustainia" project will develop a virtual city, to be accessed online, that is meant to act as a kind of leading-edge example for cities looking to improve energy efficiency in homes, public transportation and energy systems.

Schwarzenegger put his muscle behind the idea to promote it in advance of the Rio conference. In a statement, the governor said "the era for talk is over" regarding building more sustainable cities by 2020. He intends to bring his model to Rio this summer.

Sustainia, he said, will help communities follow a model that offers "better health, more liveable cities and increased productivity."

The project was kicked off during a ceremony yesterday in Geneva.

Sullivan is based in New York.