HAVANA, Cuba.- With a call to think globally, in the long term and for the sake of humanity, the high-level session of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development was inaugurated today in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary general, was in charge of the opening of the forum (also known as Rio +20), in which Cuba's delegation is headed by Army General Raul Castro Ruz, President of the Councils of State and Ministers.

“Time is not on our side,” stressed Ki-moon to the more than 120 heads of State and Government participating in the meeting, reported Telesur network.

In the event, which will wrap up on Friday, Ki-moon acknowledged that progress since the Earth Summit in 1992, has been “too slow” and warned that “the world is watching whether words are translated into actions”

Dilma Rousseff, President of the host country, expressed confidence that the heads of state and government will be “up to the challenges imposed by the global situation”, reported Prensa Latina news agency (PL).

During her speech, Rouseff, president-elect by consensus of the Conference, welcomed the active leadership of delegations whose presence “indicates the commitment of States to the complex and urgent agenda on sustainable development.”

According to PL, Rousseff will lead the negotiations of this high-level segment on the final document, entitled “The future we want”, which aims at giving continuity to the global efforts towards sustainable development.

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development Rio +20, is a new attempt to reach a world of prosperity, peace and sustainability, 20 years after the establishment, for the first time, of a global agenda in favour of these principles in the historic Earth Summit, held also in Rio de Janeiro.