Tia Kansara, PhD Student (UCL Energy Institute)

I aim to tell you all about my visit to Rio, it was my first time to South America and what an experience it was!

The Earth Summit in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was a defining watershed, focusing attention on global environmental problems, the risks of climate change and the need for collective action.

Rio+20 on June 20-222012,  the follow-up to the original summit,  aimed to revive a process often seen as faltering.

Instead of climate change, the theme of 1992, this year the focus was on “The Green Economy”.

I was present as an official delegate in my capacity as Director of Kansara Hackney Ltd, thanks to the UIA (Union Internationale des Architectes) President, Mr Albert Dubler and Prime Minister of Bhutan HH Jigme Thinley.

The official three-day event attracted more than one hundred heads of state and governments, making it one of the most important international conferences of 2012. It was held amid the global financial crisis, growing unemployment in the west and worsening environmental degradation worldwide.

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