1. World leaders needed at Rio+20 Earth Summit (June 4-6, 2012)

20 years after the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, world leaders are again called to duty, next June at Rio+20. We need them there to take action on creating a sustainable future and safeguard the planet for our children. 

The Rio Earth Summit in 1992 set the sustainability agenda. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention of Biological Diversity, and the Convention to Combat Desertification all emerged from that Summit and it opened up the international debate on sustainable development. However these international agreements have not achieved their stated objectives. Rio+20 is a vital opportunity to make change and push forward the debate, creating a lasting framework for sustainable development within the United Nations.

2. World leaders needed at Queen’s Jubilee (June 2-5, 2012)

At the same time 54 Commonwealth leaders are expected to attend Queen Elisabeth’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations in London. On October 26th, UK Prime Minister David Cameron already announced he will skip Rio+20. We fear his colleagues will follow his example, which would critically endanger a successful outcome of Rio+20.

3. Your Majesty, please help us solve this problem!

We believe the best way for Commonwealth leaders to pay their respects to the Queen is to ensure a safe future for our children at Rio+20. We therefore want to ask Her Majesty to allow Cameron and his colleagues to first attend the start of the Jubilee and then come to Rio. The world is counting on them!

30% of global population lives in the Commonwealth.
54 countries, representing all 6 continents, are Commonwealth members.
1.25bn people in the Commonwealth Big 4 live on less than $2 per day.
140m Bangladeshi live in the Ganges-delta, under constant threat of deadly floods.
1bn people go hungry every day, 70% of them are farmers.
100% of these people deserve representation by their leaders at Rio+20.