Brazilian draft deal sets out new sustainable development goals but EU delegates and others demand concrete timelines
Negotiators at the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development have agreed to strengthen the powers of the UN environment programme (Unep), according to the host government.
Brazil welcomed the beefing-up of Unep, along with emerging deals to manage the world’s oceans and establish sustainable development goals, as signs of consensus grew after weeks of procedural wrangling and divisions between rich and developing nations. Disagreements remain over financing and technology transfers.
Civil society groups have also warned that compromise is coming at the cost of a dilution of already weak ambitions for the Earth summit, which aims to rebalance economic development, social stability and environmental protection.
But the host nation said it believed a worthwhile deal could be achieved before more than 100 national leaders, as well as the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, the British deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, and other representatives, fly in for the climax of the talks at the end of the week.
