Pat Nolan's International Conference Hour

Latin America is making headlines this June as heads of state and finance officials book two-stop trips between Rio de Janiero, Brazil and Los Cabos, Mexico. The first is ecological, and the second economic. The occasions are similar in their international weight (external affairs departments and ministries are in full-swing), but different in the immediacy. Rio +20 is all about the long term Development buzzword “sustainability,” and the G-20 summit is all about how to deal with the pressing matter of the European crisis.

First Rio, then Cabos.

It might be helpful to think of the Rio summit as a Snorlax--big, the UN’s biggest summit ever, and soft, with no binding agreements scheduled. Sustainable Development Goals (in the teleological ilk of the poverty-fighting Millennium Development Goals) will be agreed upon, as will a formula for calculating GDP+ (the “+” denotes environmental impact). It’s a follow up to Rio’s 1992 conference.

 While many detractors are right, and Right, to point out the summit’s non-binding flimsiness, others are aware that environmental policies shaped around concrete protocols will also fail. In the language of the subject at hand, we need organic, evolutionary policies that favor local and heterogeneous decision-making—it’s what Rio+ is all about.

At the ground level we can expect a little flair: festivities alongside protests. That said, hippies are no match for Rio’s Favela-controlling police force.

Pressure is expected to be put on the emerging economies that Western media has always treated as ecologically ignorant. It’s as if their Scientists can’t read. I should note that the all BRIC heads of state will be in attendance while Merkel, Cameron, and Obama will be notably absent. In fact, the best Rio+ promotion you’ll find was published in Pakistan: “Each country will have the freedom to create its own model on green economy, which should be based on its national realities, the resources available and the development challenges that the country faces.”

Plants and animals are great, but this is about governance and money. Let’s hike on over to Cabos where everyone’s talking about Greece.

Finance ministers, bankers, and pretty much everyone else at the G-20, are calling on Germany’s Chancellor Merkel to front Greece some bailout cash. Merkel, who’s in some mild political trouble back home, is requiring the Greeks submit to nasty austerity packages (given exit polling in today’s Greek election, this may unexpectedly happen). Aside from yelling at Merkel, many attendants are discussing Greek disaster-preparedness.

In order to avoid confusion, the G-20 has other functions. In terms of regular business there’s still trade-liberalization and treaty-finalizing. In terms of procedure, there’s Russia running around griping about IMF voting and OECD auditing. Putin wants to make sure everything’s in order when he takes over the G-20 Presidency late this year.

“Safe travels” to the very serious people bouncing around Latin America this month.

---By Pat Nolan