"But what it is, is it's a matter of national morale, national psyche, and a statement about where each country is on the technological development side."

VOA: standard.2010.04.21

On June 8th, the UN Development Programme released a statement showing that progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), which were supposed to cut extreme poverty in half and improve social indicators such as education and health care, has been pitifully slow.

ECONOMIST: Agreeing on Africa, up to a point | The

Responding for the government, Environment Minister Richard Benyon said the government's priority for the upcoming summit was to "stand up and make a clear statement that sustainable development is the only way forward".

BBC: MPs urge PM to attend Rio+20 summit

Environment Minister John Griffiths was making a statement on the sustainable development effectiveness review, during plenary on 31 January 2012.

BBC: Democracy Live site links