Environmental organizations urge U.S. President to attend Rio Earth Summit and talk renewables

• May 22, 2012

Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Creative Commons: Mario Roberto Duran Ortiz, 2006

The leaders of nearly two dozen environmental groups called on President Obama to attend next month’s Rio+20 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, underscoring the uncertainty that continues to cloud the historic meeting.

More than 130 presidents, prime ministers and other heads of state have committed to attend the conference from June 20 to 22, which is also known as the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. But many experts question whether the session — coming 20 years after a U.N. summit in Rio that concluded with three global environmental treaties — will produce a meaningful outcome. And the White House has not said whether Obama will travel there.
Occupied with the European financial crisis, leaders such as Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel and Britain’s prime minister David Cameron have opted out of attending the summit. But several significant world leaders, such as Russian president Vladi­mir Putin, will come to Rio.

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TckTckTck is the online hub for the Global Call for Climate Action. The GCCA represents an unprecedented alliance of more than 400 nonprofit organizations from around the world. Our shared mission is to mobilize civil society and galvanize public support to ensure a safe climate future for people and nature, to promote the low-carbon transition of our economies, and to accelerate the adaptation efforts in communities already affected by climate change.

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