Document: Harnessing trade for sustainable development and a green economy

In 1992 the United Nations convened a landmark conference in Rio de Janeiro which set the tone and ambition for global policy on development and environment for the years to come. The results of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, popularly known as the Earth Summit, were reaffirmed in Johannesburg in 2002 at the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

Global leaders will reconvene in Rio in 2012 at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). They will consider progress made since the two earlier meetings, assess remaining challenges, and reset the world on a path towards sustainable development.