Leaders raise alarm at Rio+20 environmental summit on tepid document
Leaders from the developing world sharply criticized their counterparts from richer nations during talks at the Rio+20 sustainable development conference on June 21, citing what they said is the historic responsibility industrialized nations have to clean up the globe. Delegates from developed nations, meanwhile, said that a rapidly changing economic order and the rise of nations such as China, Brazil and India means that all nations must work together in protecting the environment.
Youth walk out of Rio+20
The Rio+20 conference is remarkably listless; the energy of 1992 has bled into a formulaic bureaucracy-fest. The text negotiators have agreed to punts on virtually every major issue (one analysis showed that governments agreed to “encourage” and “support” actions 148 times, but only on three issues summoned the courage to say “we will” actually do something). But it came spontaneously alive for a few hours this afternoon, when a youth-led demonstration turned into an Occupy-style sit-down that in turn agreed to a mass walkout. They marched out the front doors of this sprawling complex, 130 strong, surrounded by as many cameras and tape recorders.
