Rio conference agrees to set new sustainable development goal by 2015.

RIO DE JANEIRO, June 22 Kyodo

The U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development decided Friday to set international goals for environmental conservation and poverty eradication by 2015.

Concluding the "Rio+20" meeting in Rio de Janeiro, the participants adopted a joint document, "The future we want," in which they said they renewed their "commitment to sustainable development and to ensuring the promotion of an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable future for our planet and for present and future generations."

The document also noted, "Eradicating poverty is the greatest global challenge facing the world today and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development. In this regard we are committed to freeing humanity from poverty and hunger as a matter of urgency."

The conference, however, was not able to come up with workable measures at a time when global warming is developing and biodiversity is being damaged. It also postponed negotiations for setting numerical targets for introducing renewable energies and increasing food production.

Given this, civil campaigners said the conference ended in failure.