Rio+20 closes with lackluster agreement

Global leaders were wrapping up a UN development summit today 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 UN 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.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who arrived early today for a quick announcement on US-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 US 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.

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.