The concept of “sustainable development” was affirmed during the first Earth Summit, held in Rio in 1992. The 172 participating countries made a commitment to fight for development consisting of three pillars: economic development, social progress and environmental protection.
The Rio+20 Summit follows in the footsteps of the first Summit, and was aimed at renewing the political commitment for sustainable development, and verifying the progress of international commitments made over the last years. In addition, member states initiated a common sustainable development program to form Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) based on Millennium Development Goals (MDG).