World leaders from about 100 countries Wednesday adopted an implementation plan and a political declaration in winding up a 10-day U.N. summit on the environment and development.
The Plan of Implementation maps out specific measures to be taken in areas such as eradication of poverty, globalization and health, while the political declaration expresses the leaders' commitments to achieve sustainable development.
During working- and ministerial-level meetings, participants wrangled to draft the plan as countries were divided on key issues such as finance and trade, sanitation, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on curbing global warming, and increasing renewable energy sources.
Meanwhile, concerns have been mounting that world leaders may fail to adopt the declaration with the summit nearing its end and countries calling for numerous changes to the initial draft.