Ban Ki-moon’s preferred Rio+20 outcome

Less than a month before the U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development in Brazil, discussions on the supposed outcome of the event are picking up. Now, the head of the United Nations has joined in with his own wish list.

In an opinion piece on The New York Times, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urges Rio+20 delegates to focus on three clusters of outcomes:

• The conference should “inspire new thinking” and action, as well as emphasize sustainability.

• Rio+20 should be a “people’s summit that offers concrete hope for real improvements in daily lives” and give a voice to women and the youth.

• The event should sound a “clarion call to action” to eliminate waste and use the planet’s resources in a smarter way.

“Rio offers a generational opportunity to hit the reset button: to set a new course toward a future that balances the economic, social and environmental dimensions of prosperity and human well-being,” Ban says.

Read more:

• Brazil teases wish list for Rio+20

• The necessary allies: Jobs and environment

• Water: The means to end poverty

• Food security, climate change and global resource scarcity

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