Rio+20 UN Conference Sets Ambitious Goals for Sustainable Development

Member States participating at the United Nations’ Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio + 20, have reached an agreement to advance negotiations towards sustainable development.

“We now have a text which will be adopted at the Conference,” Rio+20’s Secretary-General, Sha Zukang, said in a statement. “We think the text contains a lot of action, and if this action is implemented, and if follow-up measures are taken, it will indeed make a tremendous difference in generating positive global change.”

United Nations’ Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, defended the summit agreement but said that it was ‘merely a piece of paper’ unless world leaders showed political commitment and implemented specific measures towards achieving sustainability.

The Secretary General said: “Why do we have a summit meeting? The leaders are the ones who can make a political decision. Depending on the political priorities they chose, the consequences will be huge,” Mr Ban said in a direct appeal to 190 governments from across the globe to work harder on putting the ideas into practice. “If these actions are not implemented, then this will merely be a piece of paper,” he added.

In addition to the outcome text, there have been over 400 voluntary commitments for sustainable development by Member States in the run up to the high-level meeting of Rio+20, which officially started on Wednesday.

The agreed outcome document spells out action points such as the need to establish sustainable development goals and mobilize financing for sustainable development, as well as the promotion of sustainable consumption and production, among others.

It also stresses the need to include non-governmental organizations, and indigenous groups in the sustainable development agenda, and calls on the private sector to engage in sustainable corporate business practices.

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