Rio +20

Eni has taken part to the intergovernmental process since the first Rio Summit in 1992, both directly and through the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM), an independent research centre the company created in 1989.
In Eni's Historical Archives several binders containing an extensive documentation on the company's participation are kept. The documents show the attention the company gave to this event, begun in 1991 with the establishment of an organizing committee called "Eni Eco ‘92".
The archive also contains documents, projects and programmes that show how Eni was the
only involved Italian company in the process. Eni also had a role in advocating and disseminating information on the Rio Summit as it organized seminars and conferences and promoted an advertising campaign on environment sound technologies.  
During the UNCED meetings, FEEM supported the Italian delegation providing it with its assistance and expertise on a wide array of social, economic and environmental issues.
A continuous support by FEEM to Italian delegations ensued, namely  at the UN CSD (Commission on Sustainable Development) sessions and at the negotiations of the Kyoto Protocol under the UNFCCC (United Framework Convention on Climate Change). FEEM also provided ongoing scientific contribution to the work of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner).
Furthermore, FEEM has become more and more involved in relevant international research networks, associations and partnerships,  such as  the CMCC (Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Climate Change), the ICCG (International Center  for  Climate Governance, and the CPI (Climate Policy Initiative), mainly for promoting initiatives in the field of climate change and sustainable development.
To follow up on the process begun in Rio in 1992, enhance dialogue between key actors in the field, and to disseminate research and consolidate knowledge in support of a sound and more effective framework for sustainable development, FEEM also organized several high-level international workshops, conferences and roundtables - noteworthy was the organization of the first World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economists, jointly with AERE, EAERE, and in cooperation with Fondazione Giorgio Cini, held in Venice in 1998.
And, as of today, the Fondazione  has produced a huge number of scientific publications,  Note di Lavoro (working paper series), including 75 books (the majority of them on environment and sustainable development issues), 42 issues of ‘Equilibri, la rivista per lo sviluppo sostenibile', each one with a thematic focus on sustainable development issues, 70 Rapporti sullo Sviluppo Sostenibile (Sustainable Development Reports), and 20 Policy Briefs, a newly launched series targeted to policy makers.

Rio +20 will assess the state of the art around two perspectives sustainable development: "Green Economy" and the "Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development".
In relations to the "Green Economy" theme, both Eni and FEEM have  substantive issues to share with all the relevant stakeholders. At the time of publication, there is not yet a common agreed definition of green economy, but the fact that it has been established on the international agenda represents itself a quite relevant issue.
What is clear is that green economy it is not only intended as manufacturing green products but has a broader meaning, as it includes and implies a relationship with growth; poverty eradication; employment; ecosystems and biodiversity protection; science and technology; etc. and in this perspective is not meant to replace sustainability but it is a key condition for achieving it.
In this regard, as a multi-national  actor (given its presence in almost 80 countries, and given the transversal nature of its core business), Eni intends to advocate some cross-cutting  themes in which economic, environmental and social consideration and all the actors dealing with it are strongly interlinked.
In particular, Eni sustainable development agenda will stress the following  cross-cutting themes linking them with its own priorities:

• Cross-cutting issue 1. Right to development: working for achieving the Millennium Development Goals by facilitating access to energy. (Energy for Sustainability)
• Cross-cutting issue 2. Economic development and greenhouse gas emission control: Low Carbon Strategies. (Sustainable Energy)
• Cross-cutting issue 3. Biodiversity protection and ecosystem services: preserving them for current and future generations. 
• Cross-cutting issue 4. Public and private sector: fostering public-private partnerships to achieve local and global goals.

Also FEEM research has made progress under the "Green Economy" perspective, both with regard to the development and application of techniques for the economic evaluation of the environment, accounting for environmental externalities, and to its contribution to the research stream on ‘Beyond GDP', which includes the design of a novel index for sustainability. The green economy dimension is also captured by the modelling tools developed for the assessment of  vulnerabilities, climate change mitigation and adaptation, as well as the study of  the energy market dynamics. It is to point out that over the years, FEEM has clearly gained some comparative advantage in terms of human capital, expertise and international reputation.

Given the complexity of the  is fundamental for Eni to thoroughly plan its participation, also in the preparation phase.  That is the reason why Eni is part or is becoming part of  various networks and key- initiatives:

• Business Action for Sustainable Development (BASD) 2012
  The Business Action for Sustainable Development (BASD) 2012 is a business network  jointly launched by the UN Global Compact, by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). The initiative is temporary and its objective, in preparation of the UNCED, is to give a concrete contribution to the sustainable development process; to make sure that the voice of business is heard and that the private sector engagement in initiatives to support sustainable development is acknowledged (as it happened in Johannesburg in 2002, when BASD 2002 had published "Walking the Talk: The Business Case for Sustainable Development" and organized a Business Day). Eni's involvement in the BASD 2012 activities will be an additional opportunity for the company to consolidate its leadership on sustainability issues and to coordinate with the other key business actors in order to develop new cooperation opportunities and to advance sustainability agenda.
• Cooperation  with the Italian Ministry for the Environment and Territory 
  At the national level, Eni will join forces with the Italian Ministry for the Environment and Territory with the goal of enhancing the commitment of the Italian institutions and the private sector and mutually reinforcing their contributions for the concrete implementation of a sustainable development actions.
• Cooperation with Confindustria and with the Global Compact Italian Network
  Eni is also cooperating with the Italian private sector and the other stakeholders with the goal of bringing at the international level, during the preparatory process, the voice of Italian business.   To this end, the company takes part to the initiatives promoted by Confindustria (the main organization representing manufacturing and services companies in Italy) and by the Global Compact Italian Network.
• The participation of the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei
  Knowing that economic and social development and environment protection need, in order to advance, to rely on the development and adoption of the most advanced technologies, Eni promotes and encourages the participation of the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei  to the scientific debates that will inform the UNCSD. For the same purpose, Eni will make the most of its cooperation with the Columbia University Earth Instute.

On 24 December 2009 the UN General Assembly, adopting resolution A/64/236, decided that a UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) will be held in 2012 in Brazil, after it hosted the landmark 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), hence the Conference's unofficial name, Rio+20.
The objective of the 2012 Conference is "to secure renewed political commitment for sustainable development, assessing the progress to date and the remaining gaps in the implementation of the outcomes of the major summits on sustainable development and addressing new and emerging challenges. The focus of the Conference will include the following themes to be discussed and refined during the preparatory process: a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication and the institutional framework for sustainable development".
The UNCSD builds upon a series on a series of initiatives that begun in 1972, with the Stockholm United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, focused on the right of human beings to a safe, healthy and productive environment. Other initiatives followed, solely based on environmental considerations. It was in 1983 that the General Assembly recognized that environmental problems were global in nature and that they would have had consequences for economic and social development. It was thus established the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) chaired by Gro Harlem Brundtland, that issued in 1987 the report "Our Common Future", officially stressing for the first time the interdependence between the environmental and social-economic dimensions. The first UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) was held in Rio in 1992, leading to the approval of several paramount documents for Sustainable Development. Among them, Agenda 21, an agenda for environment and development in the 21st Century; the Convention on Biological Diversity; the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Statement of Forest Principles. In 1993, the UN created the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) with the mandate of following-up on the implementation of Agenda 21.
UNCED, recognizing that many of the world's most pressing problems are too complex for any one sector to face alone, for the first time identified and mobilized nine Major Groups (i.e., the non-institutional stakeholders) and legitimized their participation in the sustainable development process.

In June 1997, the General Assembly dedicated its 19th Special Session (UNGASS-19 or Earth Summit +5) to design a "Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21".
Then, in 2002, the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) took place in Johannesburg, to assess progress and gaps in sustainable development worldwide and to renew the international community commitment to sustainable development. The WSSD produced three main outcomes: the Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development, The Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (JPOI) and the non-negotiated partnerships commitment, or, in the current terms, public-private partnerships (PPP). 
Other major UN Conferences have been held on themes closely related to sustainable development, such as the Millennium Summit in 2000, the Financing for Development Conference in Monterrey in 2002, the World Summit in 2005 and Conferences on Small Island Developing States
Finally, the Generally Assembly Resolution A/RES/64/236, adopted in December 2009, called for the organization of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, also referred to as 'Rio+20') to be held in Rio in 2012, 20 years after the UNCED.

Agenda 21, the main outcome of UNCED, is a plan of action for Sustainable Development to be taken and implemented at the global and local level by organizations of the United Nations System, Governments, and Major Groups, i.e., the non-institutional stakeholders. This marked the recognition that the involvement of all the actors is fundamental in the decision-making and implementation process of Sustainable Development. To this end, Agenda 21 recognizes 9 Major Groups

• Business and Industry
• Children and Youth
• Farmers
• Indigenous People
• Local Authorities 
• NGOs
• Scientific and Technological Communities
• Women
• Workers and Trade Unions