President, Asif Ali Zardari or Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani may participate in the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, to be hosted by Government of Brazil from 20-22 June 2012. An official of Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed a group of government officials, senior analysts and experts of development and environment during a briefing by the Embassy of Brazil on Wednesday.
Alfredo Leoni, Ambassador of Brazil to Pakistan briefed the participants regarding Rio-92 Earth Summit. He briefed them on the objectives and theme of the conference. He said that the conference reflects Brazil's commitment to sustainable development and expressed determination to pursue 'green economy' for sustainable development and poverty eradication.
Deputy Country Director UNDP, Jean Luc Stalon, Ishfaq Ahmed Senior Advisor on Climate Change and Development, Planning Commission, Dr Aurangzeb Khan, Chief Environment Planning Commission, Ali Tuqeer Sheikh, LEAD Pakistan, Dr Qasim Jan, Advisor COMSTECH, Irfan Tariq, Director NDMA, Raina Saeed Khan, journalist, Ghulam Mohayuddin Marri, Member Infrastructure, Planning Commission, Sohail Khan, DG, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Javed Ali Khan, DG, Environment NDMA, Senator Saadia Abbasi, Ambassador Ali Sarwar Naqvi, Dr Waqar Ahmed, SDPI, Resident Editor Business Recorder, Anjum Ibrahim and Mirza Salman Baig participated in the briefing and discussion.
The 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro was unprecedented UN conference in terms of both its size (172 countries were represented, 108 at level of heads of state or government) and the scope of its concerns. 20 years after the first global environment conference, the UN sought to help governments rethink economic natural resources and pollution of the planet. The official delegations were joined by 2,400 representatives of non-governmental organisations and 17,000 attendants of the parallel NGO Forum.