The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio +20, ends on Friday, June 22, at 3 pm, with the release of the final document, with 49 pages, called ‘The Future We Want’. The U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who arrived this morning in Rio de Janeiro, was part of the closing ceremony.

The balance of the conference was considered positive by the head of Brazil's delegation to Rio +20, Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago. "The key is to make sustainable development become a paradigm in all its aspects - social, environmental and economic," he said. For Brazilian authorities, the commitment to integrate sustainable development to the eradication of poverty worldwide is a major advancement.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) promoted several protests during the conference and promised to provide a balance of the discussions and recommendations, claiming for, among other things, the broadening of the powers of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

Members of the Peoples' Summit, civil society’s side- event to the Rio +20, held in Aterro do Flamengo, delivered the document with the balance in the morning, to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, at Riocentro. The text was prepared during the plenary sessions organized by the NGOs and other social movements. The group, chaired by Iara Pietrovsky, a member of the Summit, will welcome the Secretary-General on his arrival at the site.

Rio+20

The official document of the conference - "The Future We Want" - has 49 pages and is divided into six chapters and 283 items. The most relevant chapters are those dealing with financing and means of implementation (related to the goals and commitments that must be met).

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development - Rio +20 - happens 40 years after the Stockholm Conference and 20 years after Rio 92. The hosting of it by Brazil was approved by the UN General Assembly, at its 64th Session in 2009. The proposal is to assess the progress so far and propose new targets for sustainable development.

Rio +20 is known like this because it marks the twentieth anniversary of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio-92) and should help drafting the sustainable development agenda for the coming decades.

The event’s objective is the renewal of political commitment to sustainable development through the assessment of progress and gaps in implementation of decisions taken by the major summits on the subject and the treatment of new and emerging issues, in accordance with Resolution 64/236 of the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Clean Energy

At Rio+20’s closing ceremony, the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to announce the launch of a new funding mechanism for clean energy and to advocate for the measures that lead to sustainable development with social inclusion. The proposal presents different types of support to attract private sector investment in clean energy projects, mainly in Africa.