With negotiations at an end, WWF Director General Jim Leape today issued the following closing statement about the Rio+20 summit:

“This was a conference about life: about future generations; about the forests, oceans, rivers and lakes that we all depend on for our food, water and energy. It was a conference to address the pressing challenge of building a future that can sustain us.

Unfortunately, the world leaders who gathered here lost sight of that urgent purpose.

With too few countries prepared to press for action, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff chose to drive a process with no serious content – to the planet’s detriment.”