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President Jacob Zuma has today, 20 June 2012, arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to attend the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), scheduled for 20-22 June 2012.

The themes of the conference are:

A Green Economy within the context of sustainable development and poverty reduction” Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development” and "Sustainable Development Goals.”

The conference is expected to discuss renewed political commitment for sustainable development, assess progress to and how to address the remaining gaps in the implementation of the outcomes of major summits on sustainable development and how to meet and address new and emerging challenges.

The Conference will further focus on critical issues centred around sustainable development, one of them being energy provision since access to energy forms an important part of poverty eradication and sustainable development.

In its statement of 13 June 2012, the South African Cabinet reaffirmed the historic and precedent-setting outcome of COP17/CMP7 United Nations Climate Change Conference, which took place in Durban at the end of 2011 and which served as a foundation and catalyst for the broader focus on sustainable development at Rio+20. This will also continue to Doha, Qatar, where COP18/CMP8 will be held later this year.

President Zuma is accompanied by the Ministers of Water and Environmental Affairs, Edna Molewa; International Relations and Cooperation, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane; Finance, Pravin Gordhan; Energy, Dipuo Peters; and Women, Children and People with Disabilities, Lulu Xingwana.