The Climate Change Task Force (CCTF)—made up of 30 climate
scientists, other experts and world leaders—warned today that
sidelining climate change at the Rio+20 Summit on Sustainable
Development threatened progress on the conference’s other goals,
which includes combating poverty and building economies that
value nature. “I am very concerned and worried because the draft
final document of the Rio+20 conference does not give proper
attention to climate change,” says former Russian President
Mikhail Gorbachev in a press statement. “It looks like there is
backsliding on this issue and that is what worries me so much
because without addressing climate change, all of the other
problems and tasks that will be set by the final document [of
the Rio+20 conference] will not be accomplished and will become
meaningless.” The CCTF has released a 33 page report entitled
Action to Face the Urgent Realities of Climate Change, which
argues that the world must urgently make deep cuts in greenhouse
gas emissions and help commun