Rio+20 #Rioplus20: Top 5 Reasons Why Rio +20 Matters

The UN Conference on Sustainable Development officially opened this morning in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Your first thoughts might be, yea, yea, another conference with head of countries promising to do lots of things and then not following through. However, even though the Earth Summit at Rio 20 years ago wasn’t as successful as everyone had hoped, there are still many reasons to pay attention to the Rio +20 conference.

Here are our top 5 reasons of why you should care: 

1) It takes place in Rio de Janeiro, which might be one of the biggest party cities in the world (Carnaval, anyone?). And if you stay tuned to Conference Hound, we’ll be posting about all the best bars, clubs, and attractions that shouldn’t be missed.

2) The two major themes at Rio+20 will affect everyone on this planet: green economy within the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, and institutional framework for sustainable development. You may think: what does that have to do with me? I’m not poor. Or, I’m not concerned with sustainable development. Well,  you should be, because if countries don’t start practicing sustainable development, one day that clean drinking water you rely on might not be not be available anymore.

3) Representatives from over 150 nations will be in attendance in this conference. Sure, the Iowa State Fair might claim more attendees, but this is one of the biggest international conferences in existence.

4) Voluntary Commitments are being made by countries and organizations around the world on various sustainable development issues.  Think it doesn’t matter to you? A large portion of the voluntary commitments are being made by universities vowing to change their curriculums and operating procedures, not to mention over 100 commitments made by private sector commitments. To see the complete list, click here: http://snff.in/KU3jjn

Even if you can't get in to the Rio+20 conference, you can enjoy the surrounding beaches.

5) The Rio+20 conference will likely set the precedence for many other important conferences in the future (just like the Earth Summit in 1992 set the precedence for Rio +20)

6) BONUS! Brazilian beaches… need I say more?