The story of a ride from London to the UN Earth Summit in Jo'burg, S. Africa

World Summit on Sustainable Development 2002

The Rio Earth Summit in 1992 was the first time that an overwhelming majority of world leaders met to discuss global environmental degradation and human poverty.  Ten years later, world leaders will gather in Johannesburg, South Africa for the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development to review progress since Rio.  Tony Blair has already confirmed that he will attend the Summit.  He will be joined by world governments, United Nations agencies, financial institutions, representatives from business, non governmental organisations and concerned citizens. 

One of the major topics of debate at the Earth Summit 2002 (also known as Rio+10), will concern water.  There are over 1.5 billion people in the world without access to safe water and 3 billion people without access to adequate sanitation.  Through improvements to water and sanitation facilities, people have the basis to enable them to move beyond poverty. 

The UK government, through the Department for International Development (DfID) has taken a leadership role in the promotion of international development targets.  Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General, has successfully encouraged the international community to accept the target to reduce the number of people without access to fresh water by 50% by 2015. 

For more details on preparations for the Earth Summit, visit the UN Earth Summit Website, or the UNED Forum's Earth Summit 2002 site. There is also a UK Government Sustainable Development Website

"I am committed to going personally to the Rio+10 Conference in South Africa"
- Tony Blair