Rio Summit: Environmentalists slam agreements as too weak

Rio Summit: Expectations were low, and environmentalists say that texts diplomats agreed upon fail to set sustainable development goals.

By Nina Chestney,?Reuters, Valerie Volcovici,?Reuters / June 20, 2012

Environmentalists hold signs at the entrance of the Brazil Pavilion for the Rio+20 United Nations sustainable development summit in Rio de Janeiro. The Rio +20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development will be held from June 20 to June 22. The banners read, "This is our red line for future generations" (L) and "This is our red line, inter-generational solidarity" (R).

Nacho Doce/Reuters

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Diplomats from over 190 countries agreed on a draft text on green global development on Tuesday to be approved this week at a summit in Rio de Janeiro, but environmentalists complained the agreement was too weak.

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The summit, known as Rio+20, was supposed to hammer out aspirational, rather than mandatory sustainable development goals across core areas like food security, water and energy, but the draft text agreed upon by diplomats failed to define those goals or give clear timetables toward setting them.

It is "telling that nobody in that room adopting the text was happy. That's how weak it is," the European Union's climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard said on social network Twitter.

The text "has too much 'take note' and 'reaffirm' and too little 'decide' and 'commit'. (The) big task now for U.N. nations to follow up" on this, she added.

Expectations were low for the summit because politicians' attention is more focused on the euro zone crisis, a presidential election in the United States and turmoil in the Middle East than on the environment.

The first Rio Earth summit in 1992 paved the way for a global treaty on biodiversity, and the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases, which is due to expire this year. The Rio+20 moniker is a nod to the 1992 summit.

Heads of state and ministers, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, will meet with diplomats representing other nations from Wednesday for three days to discuss the text and possibly make some changes to its wording.

Observers do not expect major amendments.

U.S. special envoy for climate change, Todd Stern, told reporters on Tuesday he did not expect the document to change much after heads of state meet to discuss it.

"We don't have anything that we are expecting to try to drive into the document that is not there yet," he said.

'OVER BEFORE IT'S STARTED'

Environmental groups criticized the text, saying it omitted or watered down important proposals and challenged heads of state to act urgently to respond to climate change.

"This summit could be over before it's started. World leaders arriving tonight must start afresh. Rio+20 should be a turning point," said Oxfam spokesman Stephen Hale.

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