Morris Mkwate in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
President Mugabe is expected to address the United Nations Confer­ence on Sustainable Development (Rio+20)

, which officially begins here today.
Thousands of delegates, among them heads of state and government, Cabinet ministers and non-govern­mental organisation representatives, have already converged for the confer­ence.

Brazilian President Dilma Roussouf will officially open the three-day event.
Other leaders will then address ple­nary afterwards while four round­table discussions are scheduled to run con­currently with six plenary sessions.
Zimbabwe is expected to reaffirm its commitment to environmental con­servation during conference. So far, the country is working to rehabilitate water bodies affected by siltation, adopting environmentally friendly energy sources and expanding afforestation.

Rio+20 marks the 20th anniversary of the UN Conference on Environ­ment and Development held here in 1992 and also coincides with the 10th anniversary of the 2002 World Sum­mit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg, South Africa.

It will run under a two-pronged theme, “A Green Economy in the Con­text of Sustainable Development (Poverty Eradication) and the Institu­tional Framework for Sustainable Development”.

The “green economy” concept pri­marily focuses on creating environ­mentally friendly economies that con­serve natural resources and reduce pollution while sustainable develop­ment entails balancing human require­ments and environmental pro­tection.
The conference has already drawn up key discussion areas that include energy, water, food security, jobs, cities, oceans and disasters.

On energy, delegates will discuss the need to promote energy sources that minimise pollution of the environ­ment.
They will also examine methods of improving access to safe water and ensuring food production and con­sumption do not negatively affect the environment.
An action plan as well as employ­ment creation policies are also expected to come under the spotlight.

Participants are already working on resolving a standoff between develop­ing and developed countries following indications industrialised states might renege on previously agreed commit­ments.

Last year, the African Union approved the Africa Consensus State­ment to Rio+20, which pushes for developed countries to commit to a second period under the Kyoto Proto­col.

The commitment would run from next year to 2017 in terms of the state­ment expected to guide the African perspective at the conference.
Africa is also targeting massive cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per­cent below 1990 levels within the next four years.

The continent is, in addition, seek­ing to ensure industrialised countries provide long-term financing, technol­ogy and capacity-building support to enable developing nations to effec­tively address challenges stemming from climate change.