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Rio+20: Negotiators Walkout at 'Green Economy' Talks

The negotiators at the pre-Rio+20 meetings apparently are not getting the "future they want." With a wobbly world economy and trouble feeding their own populations, wealthy nations are hesitant to transfer their money to developing ones. Wealthy countries are also reluctant to transfer their technology to poorer nations who could soon outstrip their benefactor's manufacturing capabilities with cheaper labor.  Meanwhile, the Earth Summit begins on June 20th and the nations have failed to agree upon 2/3 of the negotiating text. DT

Europe's financial crisis should not be used as an excuse for inaction and underfunding of moves towards a more sustainable global economy, a senior Brazilian diplomat warned at the Rio+20 conference on Thursday as the UN talks suffered a disruption over money.

Negotiators from developing nations walked out of a core working group on the "green economy" because wealthy countries were refusing to include the transfer of money and technology that might achieve this goal.

The wobble was temporary but it bodes ill for the conference because negotiators were already running short of time to draft an agreement ahead of an Earth Summit next week that is billed as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to set mankind on a more sustainable path of development. Read more.




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