The U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20, has concluded in Brazil. Over the weekend, negotiators unveiled an agreement that sets new development goals and lays the groundwork for future talks. Rio+20 Secretary-General Sha Zukang hailed the pact as a success.

Sha Zukang: “You laid down the groundbreaking guidelines on applying green economy policies as a useful tool in advancing sustainable development and ending poverty. You agreed to strengthen the environmental pillar of sustainable development by enhancing UNEP. You decided that we need a high-level political forum to address the three pillars of sustainable development in an integrated way.”

Many groups working on environmental and poverty issues have criticized the Rio+20 agreement for being too weak. Iain Keith of AVAAZ and Kumi Naidoo of Greenpeace International had harsh criticism of the summit as it came to a close.

Iain Keith: “What has happened in Rio is weak language with no timelines to end these polluter payments. We’re here today demonstrating the fact that the wealth and the power of big oil, coal and gas speaks louder than people here at the Rio summit.”

Kumi Naidoo: “I think that it is criminal that we have close to a hundred heads of state come here and do not spend even one hour in negotiations with each other, that the whole process was left to civil servants and diplomats to actually negotiate an agreement with no effort by heads of state to actually say, ’It’s not good enough, we need more ambition,’ and so on.”