World leaders pledge 513 bln USD to sustainable development

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jun 22, 2012 -- Xinhua

Some 513 billion U.S. dollars in funding has been committed at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) to achieve a sustainable future, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday.

In a press release posted on the UN's website, Ban said he was encouraged by the nearly 700 concrete commitments - totally 513 billion dollars-registered at the conference from governments, business, industry, financial institutions and civil society groups, amongst others.

Of the funds committed, 323 billion dollars will be devoted to the secretary-general?s Sustainable Energy for All initiative, which seeks to achieve universal access to sustainable energy by 2030.

A wide range of actions have also been pledged during Rio+20. These include planting 100 million trees, empowering 5,000 women entrepreneurs in green economy businesses in Africa, and recycling 800,000 tons of polyvinyl chloride (commonly known as PVC) -- one of the most widely used plastics -- per year.

?I?m very grateful and encouraged by world leaders for their strong political commitments to agree to a solid outcome document which puts all of us towards a greater sustainable path,? Ban said.

Some 40,000 people, including heads of state and government, have been meeting here for the past three days to discuss new measures to eradicate poverty and advance social equity and protect environment.

The three-day summit is expected to conclude later Friday after the adoption of an outcome document.