Québec at Rio+20

The Government of Québec’s Rio+20 preparatory public consultation with civil society

As coordinator of the government’s sustainable development measures, the Ministère organized a consultation with civil society and municipal organizations in order to enrich the preparation, reflection and positioning of the Government of Québec with respect to the themes of the Rio+20 Conference.

More than 120 individuals and organizations were invited to participate, and close to 45 responded favourably. Participants came from environmental groups, aboriginal communities, professional associations, industry, labour, research and development centres and Québec universities. They took part in information exchange workshops during which a variety of subjects were broached in the form of questions.

Workshops were preceded by a short presentation on the theme to be discussed that summarized the gist of a document sent to all participants several days before the event.

The consultation was held thanks to the cooperation of ENAP’s LEPPM department, which took charge of organizing the event and moderating workshops.

Results of the consultation

• Main observations – the green economy in the context of sustainable development and anti-poverty efforts:
  • The importance of clarifying the relationship between the green economy and the notion of sustainable development
  • The green economy as an instrument for achieving sustainable development
  • The necessity of defining and promoting the social dimension of the green economy
  • The importance of applying the process of ecological responsibility to individuals and to the private and public sectors
  • Sharing accurate information
  • The essential role played by awareness and education in developing the green economy
  • The need for governments to set rules enabling civil society and municipalities to share in the development of the green economy

• Main observations – the institutional sustainable development framework:
  • The importance of the roles played by sub-national governments and municipalities in sustainable development
  • The leading edge nature of Québec’s sustainable development initiatives
  • The necessity of sharing Québec`s experience with other governments
  • The need to concentrate efforts so as to support good national, provincial and local initiatives, and the pertinence of dialog bodies between the various levels of government

Browse the ENAP consultation report ( French PDF, 193 kB) for more details.