UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- The initial round of negotiations on the proposed outcome document for Rio+20 began here Wednesday 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 on June 20-22.
Speaking at the opening of the three-day consultations, Rio+20 Secretary-General Sha Zukang, who is also the UN under-secretary- general for economic and social affairs, said, "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," Sha said. "We need strong decisions..strong in commitments and strong in actions."
Meanwhile, Sha also called on governments and civil society to focus on possible sustainable development goals, and whether these would take into account specific national circumstances.
He asked participants to address the complementarity between the proposed Sustainable Development Council and the Economic and Social Council; and how Rio+20 would drive the dissemination and transfer of state-of-the-art technologies, on mutually agreed terms, from developed to developing countries.
Sha stressed that official development assistance commitments would be reaffirmed and strengthened at Rio+20, while expressing the hope that the current economic and financial crisis would pass.
Eradicating poverty and building socially just and inclusive societies while protecting our fragile eco-systems, remain the defining challenge of the 21st century, Sha said. The multiple crises -- food, energy, climate, finance, employment -- shape the different facets of this challenge, he said, adding that they reminded us that problems were interconnected and must be tackled together.
The zero draft was based on more than 6,000 pages of submissions from member states, international organizations and civil society groups in an open, transparent and inclusive process spanning months.
Countries will seek to share common ground on a range of cross- cutting priorities such as food security; water; energy; cities; green jobs and social inclusion; oceans, seas and small island developing states; natural disasters; climate change; forests and biodiversity; land degradation and desertification; mountains; chemicals and waste; sustainable consumption and production; education; and gender equality.
The Rio+20 conference, coming 20 years after the landmark 1992 Earth Summit, will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on June 20-22. 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 on an ever more crowded planet.
