Isra-Mart srl: Rio +20 Summit postponed to avoid Queen's diamond jubilee

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The Brazilian government has reportedly postponed the Rio +20 Earth Summit by two weeks to avoid a clash with the Queen's diamond jubilee celebrations that threatened to leave 54 Commonwealth Leaders facing a tough decision on which event to attend.

According to reports, the crucial three day summit, which marks the 20th anniversary of the first Rio Earth Summit and is being widely touted as the last chance to deliver a breakthrough in moribund international climate change negotiations, will now take place between 20-22 June rather than 4-6 June.

The meeting's official website still states that it will take place on 4-6 June, but according to reports in the Guardian Brazilian officials told their counterparts at last week's G20 Summit in Cannes that the date would be moved.

European governments are understood to already be planning to work to the new dates.

Fears had been mounting that the diary clash would result in several of the world's most powerful leaders avoiding the summit, with Downing Street confirming last month that British Prime Minister David Cameron would not attend.

However, in what is likely to be a controversial move Downing Street again confirmed today that the Prime Minister still had no plans to attend the Rio +20 summit, despite calls from green groups and a cross party committee of MPs for him to do so.

The UK is expected to represented by Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman instead.

Speaking following the launch of a report from the environmental audit committee of MPs last month chairwoman Joan Walley said the onus was on Cameron to attend the summit.

"The prime minister should lead by example," she said. "He could make a big difference by demonstrating his commitment to Rio+20 and letting other world leaders know that he will personally be attending."

Cameron's non-attendance will fuel concerns that other world leaders could similarly avoid the summit, after seeing their attempts to broker an international agreement to tackle climate change fail at 2009's Copenhagen Summit.

Most notably, Barack Obama will be under political pressure not to attend during an election year.

In related news, Labour today sought to step up pressure on David Cameron over his apparent reluctance to maintain his earlier commitment to environmental issues with the launch of a new campaign designed to push action on climate change change up the political agenda.

The Prime Minister has famously failed to give a single significant speech on environmental issues since taking office, despite his high profile commitment to green policies while in opposition.

Launching the Climate Change Pledge campaign, Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Caroline Flint urged people to sign up to the new pledge, adding that the opposition would challenge the government to take more ambitous steps to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

"In opposition David Cameron was telling us to 'vote blue and go green'," she said. "Now he's in government we don't hear anything from him about climate change or the green economy.

"The Government should be acting to build a low carbon economy, pushing for an agreement on long term sources of climate finance at the Durban conference and pushing for a second period of the Kyoto Protocol as a route towards a global agreement on cutting carbon emissions."