France warns Rio+20 environment summit may fail

The newly elected French president cites international focus on economies as likely to overshadow any attempts at real environmental policy progress.

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Agence France-Presse

Fri, Jun 08 2012 at 6:33 AM

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NOT AN OPTIMIST: French President Francois Hollande opens the 'Club France Rio+20' forum, on June 8 at the Parc de la Villette in Paris ahead of the UN conference in Brazil. (Photo: Remy de la Mauviniere/AFP)

PARIS — French President Francois Hollande warned on June 8 that a major international summit to be held this month in Brazil aimed at breaking years of deadlock on pressing environmental issues may fail.

Hollande, who will attend the summit, said there was a "risk of division between developed countries, emerging countries, poor countries, the risk of failure because there may be other pressing matters.

"The world is today turned towards the economic crisis, the financial crisis, and is worried about a certain number of conflicts, such as Syria", which means "one might easily turn away from what is however the top priority, the environment," he said.

One hundred world leaders are set to attend the UN Conference on Sustainable Development on June 20-22 in Rio de Janeiro.

The summit is taking on the vast challenge of transforming environmental, social and economic policy to cope with a world population of more than seven billion that is exhausting dwindling resources and straining cities to the limit.

But UN leader Ban Ki-moon and specialist groups have accused governments of putting national interests before the common good in months of agonizing negotiations before the Rio event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Earth summit in the same city.

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Comment: 1

Steven Earl Salmony Jun 08 2012 at 8:46 PM

This situation is no longer deniable. During my lifetime, many have understood the Global Predicament we are facing now, but only a few 'voices in the wilderness' were willing to speak out loudly and clearly about what everyone can see. It is not a pretty sight. The human community has precipitated a planetary emergency that only humankind is capable of undoing. The present 'Unsustainable Path' has to be abandoned in favor of a "road less travelled by". It is late; there is no time left to waste.

.... More

Perhaps now we will gather our remarkably abundant, distinctly human resources and respond ably to the daunting, human-induced, global challenges before us, the ones that threaten life as we know it and the integrity of Earth as a fit place for human habitation. Many voices, many more voices are needed for making necessary changes.

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