Over 110 Heads Of State, Government Attending UN Rio+20 Conference

Bernama 15 Mar 12;

UNITED NATIONS, March 15 (Bernama) -- More than 110 heads of state and government have said they will participate in the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, also known as the Rio+20, in Brazil in June, a UN spokesman said yesterday.

"The (UN) secretary-general has personally appealed to all heads of state and government to attend and to make this conference a success," UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said at a daily news briefing Wednesday, Xinhua news agecny reported.

The conference, returning 20 years after the landmark 1992 Earth Summit, will take place in Rio de Janeiro from June 20 to 22 where world leaders, along with thousands of participants from the private sector and non-governmental groups, are expected to come together to shape ways to reduce poverty, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection.

"The level of attendance is amongst the highest seen for this kind of event," Nesirky said. "The number is already higher than the Johannesburg conference."

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to brief the UN General Assembly on Friday morning on the report, entitled " Resilient people, resilient planet: a future worth choosing," by the High-level Panel on Global Sustainability, said the spokesman.

The initial round of negotiations on the proposed outcome document for Rio+20 began here on Jan. 25 in order to pave the way for a successful conference of world leaders in June on sustainable development.

This informal round is the first of four more negotiating sessions in March, April, May and June in the lead-up to the Rio+20 conference in Brazil.

Rio+20 Secretary-General Sha Zukang, who is also UN under-secretary-general for economic and social affairs, said at the opening of the three-day consultations:

"When world leaders gather in Rio in five months, we need to present them with an ambitious and yet practical outcome that equals the magnitude of today's challenges,"

"We need a robust outcome from Rio+20, with reinvigorated political commitments by all countries. We need strong decisions ... strong in commitments and strong in actions," she added.

-- BERNAMA