NRDC, Other Groups Urge President Obama to Attend Rio+20 Earth Summit

Organizations Representing 5 Million+ Americans say Obama’s Attendance is Crucial for Success

WASHINGTON (May 21, 2012) –  The Natural Resources Defense Council and more than 20 other environmental, social and health groups today released a letter sent to President Barack Obama strongly encouraging him to attend the Rio+20 Earth Summit in June.

The United States also should announce as soon as possible its latest commitments to address climate change and sustainability, according to NRDC President Frances Beinecke and CEOs of other groups that collectively represent more than 5 million Americans.

“Your presence at this Summit would signal its critical importance to all Americans,” Beinecke and other CEOs wrote to President Obama.

It also would “demonstrate our country’s deep concern over urgent global issues that will inevitably affect our security and well-being, and highlight our nation’s determination to be a contender in the race to a low-carbon green economy,” they wrote.

The letter also encourages U.S. leaders to make new commitments at the Rio+20 Earth Summit to phase out fossil fuel subsidies, support clean energy investments and address pollution, acidification and overfishing in our oceans.

Along with NRDC, other groups whose CEOs signed the letter include Earthjustice, Sierra Club, Environment America, Greenpeace, National Wildlife Federation, Physicians for Social Responsibility and Defenders of Wildlife.

To read the letter in full and for a full list of signatories, please see http://docs.nrdc.org/international/int_12051801.asp

For more details on NRDC’s priorities at the Rio+20 Earth Summit, please see our Web site dedicated to the Summit at www.race2rio.org

For more details on country commitments to the Rio+20 Earth Summit so far, please see the www.summitwatch.org Web site created by NRDC and its partners.

And to speak to a member of NRDC’s Rio+20 Earth Summit team, please contact Bob Keefe at bkeefe@nrdc.org or Elizabeth Heyd at eheyd@nrdc.org.