Article #25 Indonesian President Attends Rio+20 Summit Published on Tuesday, 26 June 2012 20:36 Written by Super User

Rio de Janeiro, (ANTARA) The UN High Level Conference onfor Sustainable Development, better known as the Rio+20, was officially opened amid overcast weatherskies and a light rain in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Wednesday afternoon local time, or Thursday Western Indonesian Time time by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. This conference, held at organized by the Rio Center , located on the outskirts of this popular Brazilian tourism destination, was attended by over 100 heads of state or governments from around the world, including theby Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The Rio+20 has been a staplehallmark gathering offor the past twenty years, ever since the first Earth Summit high level conference was held in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro. Previously, President Yudhoyono has statedsaid that he intends he is going to push encourage action on the agenda of a sustainable and justfair economic action agenday at when attending thise meetinggathering of world leaders in Rio+20, from 20-22 June 20-22. AThis agenda, according to the President, this agenda is of utmostvery importancet to for mankind in order to protect take care of the earth as a home, and to overcome the poverty which that currently afflicts much of the world is facing. Theis Head of State also added that, to date, the causes of environmental the problem of the decline in the quality of the environment are already well known, as are the . sSolutions are already in hand. However, action remainsstill stalledneeds to be taken. We must avoid the trap of playing danger of the waiting game trap. CBuilding a consensus building, especially at the global level, takes time. We must act now, he said the President. According to the Presidenthim, political commitment is required needed to carry out the agenda of developing a sustainable economy thatwhich is environmentally friendly and just. Political commitment is very crucial. It is not always easyt to develop environmental -based policy. However, this a is necessityeded, and is the right thing to do. So, we must push strongly push for it, despite the challengeseven though there are some refusals, he said the President. The other government leaders in attendance at Rio+20 will each have a chance convey their views on sustainable development. On Wednesday afternoon the Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad and the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon will speakgive their views, and .on Thursday local time President Yudhoyono will take his turnis scheduled to convey his views on Thursday, local time.

It is hoped that the Rio+20 will allow for discussion ofdeliberate over seven keyprimary sectors which areas the subjects of joint focus, namely suitable employment, energy, crop resilience, agriculture, clean water, marine resources, and disaster management. However, a number of international NGOs are pessimistic that the Rio+20 will be able to reach any a breakthroughn innovative agreement on sustainable development. Source: antara.com