Rio+20 ending with weak text, emboldened observers

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Global leaders were wrapping up a U.N. development summit on Friday with little to show but a lackluster agreement, leaving many attendees convinced that individuals and companies, rather than governments, must lead efforts to improve the environment.

Nearly 100 heads of state and government gathered over the past three days in efforts to establish "sustainable development goals," a United Nations drive built around economic growth, the environment, and social inclusion. But a lack of consensus over those goals led to an agreement that even some signatories say lacks commitment, specifics, and measurable targets.

A series of much-hyped global summits on environmental policy have now fallen short of expectations, going back at least to a 2009 U.N. meeting in Copenhagen that ended in near-chaos. As a result, many ecologists, activists, and business leaders are coming to the conclusion that progress on environmental issues must be made locally with the private sector, and without the help of international accords.

"The greening of our economies will have to happen without the blessing of the world leaders," said Lasse Gustavsson, executive director of the World Wildlife Fund.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who arrived early Friday for a quick announcement on U.S.-backed projects in Africa and a series of bilateral meetings with various world leaders, admitted as much. "Governments alone cannot solve all the problems we face," she said, "from climate change to persistent poverty to chronic energy shortages."

Most troubling for many critics of the summit is the fact that leaders arrived in Rio de Janeiro merely to sign a text that their diplomats had all-but sealed beforehand. The text, dubbed "The Future We Want," as such left little room for vision or audacity from presidents and prime ministers, they argue.

"The world we want will not be delivered by leaders who lack courage to come here, sit at the table, and negotiate themselves," said Sharon Burrow, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, one of the many non-governmental organizations present for the summit.

"They took no responsibility for imposing the action, the targets, the time lines."

In fact, some heads of state stayed away given the global economic slowdown, worsening debt woes in Europe, and continued violence in the Middle East.

Notable absentees included U.S. President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and British Prime Minister David Cameron, all of whom attended a gathering of the Group of 20 major economies earlier this week in Mexico.

GOALS DIFFERENT THAN AT '92 SUMMIT

The summit, known as Rio+20, was never expected to generate the sort of landmark accords signed at the 1992 Earth Summit here, which included a treaty on biodiversity and agreements that led to the creation of the Kyoto protocol on greenhouse emissions. Though it attracted more than 50,000 people, many visitors were disillusioned to find that the leaders made few specific commitments on issues ranging from energy to food security to oceans.

Throughout the three-day gathering and week-long negotiations beforehand, the streets of central Rio and around the suburban conference hall that hosted the summit were filled with demonstrations by activists ranging from Indian tribes to environmentalists to anti-nuclear protesters.

Instead of forging legally binding treaties, organizers say, the purpose of this summit was to initiate a process to define a new set of development principles.

But that process, like most global diplomacy, is rife with conflicting interests and tensions between rich countries and the developing world. "The storyline is different from 1992," said Andre Correa do Lago, chief negotiator at the conference for Brazil, which led the final talks on the declaration.

"This summit recognizes more than the others that not one size fits all," he added.

Indeed, many leaders used their time at the podium during the event to note the markedly different needs they are struggling with, especially compared with the developed world. While Brazil, China and other big emerging nations spoke of their need to catch up with rich countries, others like Bolivia, Iran and Cuba unleashed traditional rants against capitalism and conventional definitions of growth.

One point of contention is what many developing countries say is a need for a global fund that could help them pursue development goals. Early talk of a $30 billion fund for that purpose as a possible outcome of the summit foundered well before leaders arrived. A French proposal to tax financial transactions for that purpose also failed.

Clinton, announcing a $20 million grant for clean energy projects in Africa, said a better mechanism is "partnerships among governments, private sector and civil society."

Other countries, the World Bank, and many regional development banks also used the summit as a venue for showcasing similar initiatives. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday, for instance, said private investors pledged over $50 billion to boost the use of renewable energy sources worldwide.

Many business leaders at the conference said they are eager to find ways to contribute further. Richard Branson, the British billionaire, in an interview at the "World Green Summit," one of many sideline events, said "there's very little in a document like what they've come up with to accomplish real goals. That leaves it to the rest of us to find ways to move forward."

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