Rio+20 earth summit on sustainable development in Brazil June 2012

“Rio+20” is the short name for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. 20 years ago, United Nations Conference on Environment/climate change and Development was held in Rio de Janeiro from 3-14 June 1992. This was the first United Nations Conference on Environment and Development .152 World leaders made a remarkable deal in Brazil Rio de Janeiro and Agenda 21, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Rio Declaration was born. These led to big changes in the way of solving global environmental and development problems the world faced at the time, hoping to ensure poverty ceases from being the order of the day.

Rio +20 earth summits on sustainable development which is expected to take place from 20th - 22nd June 2012, will bring together world leaders and participants from the private sector, NGOs, and sustainable development conscious groups. The aim of the earth summit on sustainable development is to assess the progress made so far, come up with new agreements to enhance sustainable development, environment and climate change. Ironically climate change impacts are today more evident than ever locally and internationally, and they include environmental degradation, lack of food and water security and increased poverty in the developing countries. Many nations are waiting expectantly for the Rio+20 conferences to come up with concrete measures to save the environment and help developing countries continue to deal with poverty. The official agenda will focus on two main themes:-

·        How to build a green economy for achievement of sustainable development and poverty reduction

·        How to improve international coordination for poverty reduction and sustainable development.

We need Rio+20 as it’s essential to ensure our children and grandchildren do not inherit poverty due to climate change .The challenges of widespread poverty and climate change need to be dealt with now. The world today has 7 billion people by 2050 it will be 9 billion. One out of every five people, 1.4 billion currently lives on $1.25 a day or less. Two and a half billion people don’t have a toilet. A billion and half people in the world have no access to electricity. Almost a billion people go hungry every day. Greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise and more than a third of all known species could get extinct if climate change continues unrestrained. Rio+20 will give us a new opportunity to address climate change and global poverty. Want to learn more about the agreement at Rio+20 in June 2012? Go to http://www.uncsd2012.org/content/document/727The%20Future%20We%20Want%2019%20June%201230pm.pdf