12.58pm: "Rio+20 Earth summit talks turn into rubber-stamp job". That's the headline for our story from Jonathan Watts on the ground in Rio de Janeiro, as the likes of Hilary Clinton, Nick Clegg and François Hollande spend day two discussing how to implement the text agreed at preliminary talks on Tuesday. Here's the top of the story:

Delegates and non-governmental organisations at the UN's huge Rio+20 conference have expressed dismay that world leaders arriving on Wednesday to thrash out a deal will do little more than rubber-stamp a negotiating text that contains few concrete measures and has been largely locked down.

On the agenda today is the launch of a big campaign to 'save the Arctic', backed by a host of celebrities including, um, One Direction. Here's a preview of the story that Watts and our energy editor Terry Macalister have just filed:

Robert Redford, Paul McCartney and Penelope Cruz and an A-list of global celebrities joined forces with Greenpeace and business leaders on Thursday to call for a global sanctuary in the Arctic.

The stars, who also include Jude Law, Pedro Almodovar, Thom Yorke, One Direction and Dev Patel, are among the first hundred names on "The Arctic Scroll" that will be planted on the seabed at the North Pole as part of a major new drive to halt oil drilling and unsustainable fishing in the region.

The campaign was launched by entrepreneur Richard Branson, actress Lucy Lawless and the Greenpeace International executive director Kumi Naidoo at the Rio+20 Earth Summit, where government-level efforts to establish a protected area around the pole were killed by the three countries pushing hardest to develop the region: the US, Canada and Russia.

"The Arctic is coming under assault and needs people from around the world to stand up and demand action to protect it," said Naidoo. "A ban on offshore oil drilling and unsustainable fishing would be a huge victory against the forces ranged against this precious region and the four million people who live there. And a sanctuary in the uninhabited area around the pole would in a stroke stop the polluters colonising the top of the world without infringing on the rights of Indigenous communities."

Actor John Hurt has narrated a video for the launch:

The campaign's also trending on Twitter under the hashtag #savethearctic.

It is time to draw a line in the ice and tell the polluters to come no further. Join us to #SaveTheArctic: bit.ly/svarct

— Kumi Naidoo (@kuminaidoo) June 21, 2012

Polar bear spotted in London! Must be here to help #SaveTheArctic ow.ly/i/Ie8W bit.ly/MATPYS

— Greenpeace UK (@GreenpeaceUK) June 21, 2012

1.06pm: Today we'll be hearing speeches from heads of state, including Nick Clegg on behalf of the UK, on the draft outcome agreement at Rio. As the negotiations at the summit are effectively over, officials, celebrities and world leaders will be spending a lot of time glad-handing, talking at events and meeting in bilaterals where any mild tweaking of the final text might occur (see 1.26pm update from yesterday's liveblog).

The UN highlights a few key events on the radar today (all Rio time, 4 hours behind the UK):

Actor Edward Norton is UN goodwill ambassador for biodiversity. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

• UN Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity and acclaimed actor Edward Norton will speak to the press at 11 a.m. in a briefing by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

• Commitments to the Secretary-General's Sustainable Energy for All initiative will be announced, including major commitments from governments, multilateral institutions, the private sector and civil society. Watch live at 2pm.

• Secretary-General Ban will be joined by members of his High-level Panel on Global Sustainability, several Heads of State and prominent individuals including Sir Richard Branson, for an event at 3 p.m. focusing on the findings of the panel's report, Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing.

1.35pm: We've got a fascinating interview up with the former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, who Watts describes as "one of the chief architects of the first Rio Earth summit in 1992". We can blame the Eurozone crisis and the US election, in part, for Rio+20's lack of ambition, she suggests:

Former prime minister of Norway Gro Harlem Brundtland during a press conference at the Rio+20 summit Photograph: Andre Durao/AFP/Getty Images

"The absences [of heads of state] are not good and they don't look good. One explanation is the terrible difficulties in Europe. The Europeans would normally feel like they should be here," she told the Guardian. "The financial and economic problems that some countries face don't make it easier for them to agree on things that they would have agreed to before 2008."

In the US, she saw a worrying decline in political support for environmental issues. "The election scene is an obvious factor in the decision by Obama not to be here. The climate issue on the American scene has been really difficult for years and in many ways it is worse now than three or four years ago. The Republican right – the Tea party, etc – are building around climate denial. In that sense, the American scene is deteriorating on these issues."

1.50pm: Clegg was at a UK-hosted event yesterday on 'natural capital' (see 5.54pm update from yesterday's liveblog).

Greg Jones, a journalist who's on a placement on the environment desk, has turned the deputy prime minister's full speech into this Wordle.

2.04pm: The world leader speeches should be starting in the next few minutes. Among the first batch, we'll be keeping a particular eye out for Evo Morales of Bolivia and Dmitry Medvedev of Russia. The UK, and big hitters like Manmohan Singh of India and Julia Gillard of Australia, will be in a later batch, at 7pm BST (according to the official schedule, at least).

2.13pm: Here's a short film of the heckler who interrupted Clegg's speech yesterday. Turns out she was from the World Development Movement, which also listed the Amazon rainforest for sale on eBay yesterday – eBay cancelled the listing (see 5.29pm update) .

(hat-tip to @thegregjones)

2.30pm: Liz Ford, the Guardian's global development deputy editor, writes from the summit:

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, left, and Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff at the opening plenary of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development or Rio+20, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, June 20, 2012. Photograph: Silvia Izquierdo/AP

There's a crowd gathering outside one of the conference rooms, waiting the arrival of the Brazilian president, Dilma Rousseff, and the head of UN Women, Michelle Bachelet who will be "making a strong call to action" to governments, civil society and the private sector to prioritise gender equality and women's empowerment (we're inching closer, but are still way off - there's a reason why the MDGs that specifically relate to women and gender are way off track). Leaders attending the Future Women Want event are expected to sign a UN Women declaration of intent. But will the declaration be what all women want? How far will it go? Will it mention family planning, a major issue among some of the women - and men - I've spoken to here? I'll keep you posted.

2.36pm: Heads of state are meeting at four different "roundtables" today to discuss how to implement the weak text agreed on Tuesday. Luiz Alberto Figueiredo, Under Secretary at the Brazilian Foreign Ministry reminds governments they'll need to actually cough up some cash, if the agreement is to have any effect:

No money, no Rio+20 honey. Brazil's spokesman Figueiredo says "One cannot call for ambition in actions if there's no ambition in finance."

— jonathanwatts (@jonathanwatts) June 21, 2012

2.55pm: The full story on Greenpeace's Arctic campaign is now up. Here's why they've launched it:

A Greenpeace activist poses in a polar bear suit during an action on Red Square in Moscow, June 21, 2012. Greenpeace campaigners today launched a bid for a global sanctuary in the Arctic in a worldwide series of events, organisers said. Photograph: Denis Sinyakov/Reuters

A vast area of the waters around the Arctic are considered international "high seas", but the land and the ocean floor are coming under increasing pressure from governments and mining companies as the ice melts due to global warming and rising oil prices make extraction in this remote area more economical.

In 2007, a Russian submarine planted a flag on the sea floor, one of several efforts by nations in the region to try to extend their territorial claims into this resource-rich area. The land and sea north of the Arctic Circle is believed to account for 22% of the remaining oil and gas reserves in the world, according to a recent study by the US Geological Survey.

3.02pm: Here's what the US's top negotiator at Rio, Todd Stern, thinks about the agreement reached – he puts a very positive spin on it:

Todd Stern. Photograph: Miguel Villagran/Getty Images

It is a negotiated outcome, a negotiated document with a lot of different views from a lot of different players. So, it obviously isn't everything to everybody. I think everybody here — I think Minister Patriota mentioned this — everybody had things they were more pleased about and less pleased about, and certainly some things could have been improved, but I think it was a good strong step forward.

I believe this document is done. And I believe that that's the intention of our Brazilian hosts, the Brazilian Presidency of this conference. And I think that's the ordinary course for a conference like this. There is a negotiating process, which gets handled by negotiators. Of course, that process started many months ago and went through various so-called PrepCom sessions, and then finished here
today. So I think that the Brazilians have no plan or intention to let the document open up. And I think there is a very good reason for that, which is that everybody has things that they really don't like in the document in one way or another, and once-I think this is a thread that once you start pulling on it, it unravels quickly.

We have done some important things institutionally, including significantly strengthening UNEP in the UN system, also establishing a new high-level forum on sustainable development in the UN in New York focusing on a variety of ways to manage our vital natural resources more effectively and efficiently. And I think all of these things will not in any sense by themselves-but we hope push in a direction where sustainable development proceeds and we more and more have the ability, as was first discussed in the 1987 Brundtland Report, to meet
the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. And that is a nice kind of summary of what sustainable development is all about.

3.20pm: More than a few people have been asking just what world leaders will be doing today, considering the text is already agreed and basically locked down. Richard Weaver, who's at the summit for development charity Tearfund, asks:

If heads of state are not going to try to make the text better here in Rio then what on earth are they going to do? Well Rio certainly has plenty of attractions – Corcovado, Pao de Acucar, Copacabana, Ipanema – to name just a few – but I suspect that in these times of economic crisis spending three days sightseeing would not go down well with their electorates – or at least it shouldn't.

While WWF has this:

World Leaders: We didn't elect & pay you to come to #RioPlus20 for the beaches. You must secure our future. Signed, #YourTaxpayers

— WWF (@WWF) June 21, 2012

The answer, Watts tells me from the RioCentro convention centre, is the four roundtables I mentioned earlier (2.36pm update):

Jonathan Watts

They've broken up into four working groups, and are supposed to be looking at how the text are implemented. It's not entirely clear how the meetings work. Each group is assigned a theme. In theory they are not supposed to be just having bilaterals. They will also be doing their five minute speeches.

3.24pm: The summit may be about to become a lot more interesting in terms of the wider news agenda. The fate of Wikileaks' Julian Assange and his bid to take political asylum in Ecuador might be decided today at Rio+20, reports the Guardian's diplomatic editor, Julian Borger:

Julian Assange has asked for asylum at Ecuador's embassy in London. Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

A spokeswoman at the Ecuadorean embassy in Knightsbridge said Assange was in good spirits in anticipation of the decision, which is expected to be announced either in Quito or in Rio, where Correa, is attending the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development.

Jonathan Watts is looking into it.

3.38pm: Watts has just been chatting with a diplomat in the corridors (not from Ecuador, though he can't be named):

He was just looking at the speeches being made on the big screens [by world leaders], and said "you have to wonder if it was all really worth it. You've got to avoid the chaos of Copenhagen ... [he trailed off]" But he agreed it had gone too far the other way [ie the text being agreed even before heads of state arrived and effectively 'locked down'].

The diplomat also gave some more insight into exactly what the heads of state are doing in the four roundtables (see 2.36pm). They meet for about three hours a day. But even in those meetings, all they are doing is prepared speeches, rather than, say, rolling up sleeves and making major changes to the text or how it will be implemented.

Don't expect any late night deliberations, the diplomat said, adding words to the effect that it's pretty much already over.

3.52pm: My colleague Simon Rogers on the Guardian's datablog has reviewed some eye-popping new carbon emissions data released by the US this week, taking us up to 2010. It's pretty sobering stuff when you compare emissions since the first Rio Earth Summit in 1992. He writes:

Simon Rogers. Photograph: Sarah Lee

The world emits 48% more carbon dioxide from the consumption of energy now than it did in 1992 when the first Rio summit took place.

The new data shows the rise of Asia, big increases in emissions in Africa, how Europe has plateaued – and how Iran has shot up the league table.

China – the world's biggest emitter of CO2 – has increased by 240%, as
The new data, published by the US Energy Information Administration this week, is the most comprehensive carbon emissions data with statistics for over 200 countries around the world since 1980.

Fiona Harvey, our environment reporter, will have a news story on it soon. Here's the data:
• The world map of CO2 emissions
• World carbon emissions: the league table of every country

4.08pm: Greg Jones here has been watching actor Edward Norton, he of Fight Club and the Incredible Hulk fame, and who happens to also have a sideline as the UN's Ambassador for Biodiversity. Norton's at Rio+20, and has been talking to delegates:

Edward Norton stars as Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk. Photograph: Michael Gibson

He spoke about the role that individuals and the media have to play in sustainable development and the protection of biodiversity.

He began by describing the way that the local people in and around Rio had taken it upon themselves to start making a difference.

"It's incredibly inspiring to see people from local communities in humbling positions who have nonetheless determined for themselves the future of their children, the planet, and a way of sustaining their culture, rely on adapting their behaviour and the way they interact with their own environment."

He went on to explain his personal interest in communicating these issues, stating: "The reason I was enthusiastic to participate in communication [of the loss of biodiversity] is that I think that there are certain things about the way the environment degrades, or is destroyed, that are apparent to all of us."

"Loss of biodiversity is a very difficult form of environmental degradation for people to wrap their minds around – they don't see species disappearing. They don't see and feel their alliance with biodiversity."

Norton said Rio+20 was an opportunity to "relaunch and invigorate" the message on committing ourselves to safeguarding biodiversity.

He said that he saw that it was his role to promote this message, but also highlighted the important role that the media plays.

"If they continue to report on biodiversity in a way that sounds like abstract science then it won't bring it home to people."

He added that the media "needs to consider, and frankly do a better job at, how we creatively construct this narrative in a way that brings the message of biodiversity home to people".

Norton stressed the importance of getting the message to the public and making them value their environment, saying, "we can't protect something that people don't value".

"My charge to the media that's covering this is to consider what role they can play as well in taking these complex and sophisticated concepts at times, and think of ways to creatively distil that into stories that in some way land with their readerships."

He encouraged the media to show local examples, such as the loss of bees or forests, and highlight those stories unfolding in people's back yards.

These links are for you, Edward!
• The Guardian's Piece by Piece project
• Experts puzzled by big decline in honeybees over winter
• Amazon deforestation at record low, data shows

4.27pm: Liz Ford reports that, "in case the 114 world leaders at Rio+20 were in any doubt about the frustration and disappointment felt from civil society groups about the weak document they are expected to rubber stamp tomorrow", NGOs reminded them this morning in Rio:

There was no holding back at the press conference, held in a room that was chilly in temperature and sentiment.

Daniel Mittler, political director of Greenpeace, said the "epic failure of Rio was a reminder of the present we have in which short-term corporate profit rules over the interests of people". The outcome was nothing short of disastrous, adding that developed countries had given us a "new definition of hypocrisy" in their dealings.

Lasse Gustavsson, executive director for conservation at the WWF, added that two years of "sophisticated UN diplomacy" in preparing for Rio+20 "has given us nothing more than more poverty, conflict and environmental destruction."

Sharan Burrow, general secretary of the International Trade Union Conference, said leaders had shown a lack of courage. She said their failure so far to challenge any of the text in the draft outcome document was "unacceptable". "It's not a photoshoot," she added.

But among the five panel members at the meeting, there was a steely determination to carry on the fight. All said Rio presented a fresh opportunity to mobilise. Burrow said it was time to take action and let politicians know people votes will be at stake if they fail to address the issues. "If they don't want a new model of development, then we won't be electing them in the future," she said.

Barbara Stocking, chief executive of Oxfam, said a meeting in Rome on Friday, principally to discuss the Eurozone crisis, will also talk about the financial transaction tax, something UK PM David Cameron is opposed to, but other European leaders have expressed interest in. A step forward on the FTT would be welcomed.

4.37pm: You can get a good flavour from this video of the contrasting sober atmosphere in the conference centre, which is on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, and the carnival-like protests in the centre of the city.

The footage is from Wednesday, but it's worth a watch.

4.42pm: Here's some more insight into the roundtables that world leaders are attending, from a delegate who's emailed me from Rio+20 (they don't want to be named, but I know and trust them):

What I heard last night from someone who had participated in one of the roundtables was that heads of state came in, made statements and then left. He seemed shocked and deeply disappointed that the roundtable seemed not to be a dialogue but, rather, a one-way street from heads of state to major groups. He seemed to feel that the round tables were not working in the way that the Brazilians had presented them.

4.49pm: Some more reaction on the text, this time from Yvo de Boer, the former executive secretary for UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (which was born out of the original '92 Rio Earth summit), via Jonathan Watts:

Former UN climate chief Yvo de Boer. Photograph: Bob Strong/Reuters

He said the agreement was weak, but it was unlikely to be changed. "Reopening the text would be like opening Pandora's box because everyone would want to put something back in that they lost," he said. But he urged national leaders to propose an addendum with stronger language.

5.04pm: In case you missed it, here's the 'family photo' of world leaders who are at Rio+20, with some notable absences such as David Cameron, Barack Obama and Angela Merkel. It was taken on Wednesday.

Official photo with Heads of State and Delegations during opening the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, or Rio+20, on June 20, 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Photograph: Buda Mendes/Getty Images

Our picture editor, Eric Hilaire, has put it on one of our 'big picture' pages, so you can zoom in and see how many you recognise.

5.18pm: Hannah Ryder, who is part of the UK delegation at Rio and works at Dfid, and won the Observer Ethical Award for best blogger last month, gives an account behind the scenes yesterday:

I head back to the UK office which is incredibly busy. Nick Clegg arrives: it's the first time he's come to our "nerve centre". I am called over to brief him about the event the UK is organising today along with a Defra colleague. The trick is to impart all the relevant information as quickly and clearly as possible. The brief works – he's energised by the need for governments and the private sector to value the natural resources they have – also known as "GDP+". Yesterday he backed this up with UK announcements – mandatory emissions reporting for FTSE 100 companies and working with the private sector to invest in a 'knowledge bank' to protect people living in the poorest forest areas. My Whitehall colleagues have worked hard to make both happen. We head to the event. It's packed and security are turning people away. Nick Clegg makes a powerful opening speech and I'm reminded of a few skeptical voices a few months ago that said this was too technical a topic to get purchase. This is one of those moments a civil servant can feel proud.

5.22pm: Here's the latest from Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson. It doesn't really take us on from where we were yesterday, but promises more "commitments" from business and governments on Friday:

UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon at the Rio+20 Earth summit Photograph: Evaristo Sa/AFP/Getty Images

The secretary general is confident that the Rio+20 outcome document provides a firm foundation for advancing sustainable development.

The secretary general is grateful for the seminal role played by President Dilma Rousseff in achieving the agreements captured in the outcome document. Brazil's strong leadership role resulted in an outcome document upon which the sustainable development agenda can solidly build a vision and positive legacy.

Now is a time for action.

Already a major achievement of Rio+20 is that governments, corporate leaders, civil society and philanthropists are stepping up with partnerships, funding and ideas. Many of these commitments will be announced tomorrow. We can nurture, deepen, and implement these commitments with all stakeholders that have made them possible.

Rio+20 marks the beginning of a journey that will lead to a more sustainable and better future for ourselves and for generations to come.

5.34pm: There's a protest taking place at the RioCentro convention centre where Rio+20 is being held, as Jonathan Watts reports:

Environmentalist and author Bill McKibben. Photograph: Corey Hendrickson/Polaris/For The Guardian

There are around 200 people here, mostly youth activists and some representatives from indigenous groups, and the US environmentalist Bill McKibben. We've just heard a heart-breaking song called Earth Revolution Generation Now from the British Columbia indigenous group [this group, it seems]. People taking part have said the action has been declared unsanctioned, and warned participants they should stop if they don't want to have their badges taken away. But what different would that make anyway, one speaker said. McKibben started: "I'm older, I've had to watch these charades go on for longer than you. Enough is enough."

We'll have a full story shortly.

6.11pm: Liz Ford and Jonathan Watts report on one of the few concrete initiatives to have been announced at Rio. Here are the top lines, from the story:

Director of UNDP’s Human Development Report Office Khalid Malik seen during high-level forum at the UN Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development where the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) presented the conceptual groundwork for a future “Sustainable Human Development Index,” which would recognize the cost of human development to future generations. Photograph: UNDP

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) has unveiled its "conceptual framework" for a human sustainability index that would recognise rates of human development while also weighing up the cost of progress to future generations.

At a high-level forum at Rio+20 on Wednesday, Khalid Malik, director of the UNDP's human development report office, outlined the work his branch of the organisation had been carrying out in an attempt to measure sustainable development.

Malik said basic building blocks would be needed to come up with a suitable measure. The first would be working out how to adequately connect current choices with the choices of the next generation, who have rights that need to be protected just as much as those of the current generation, said Malik. The second would involve measuring the use of environmental resources, while the third would entail linking local and global resource use (for example, Canada may have plenty of water sources, enabling the country to live within its local limits, but those limits may exceed global ones).

6.17pm: Greg Jones has been talking to Jonathan Watts about the state of play on day two (apologies for the quality of the line).

We'll have more from Audioboos from our correspondents on the ground shortly.

6.23pm: Looks like McKibben might get kicked out of Rio+20 for that 'unsanctioned action' (see 5.34pm update)

We (mostly youth) been sitting in for an hour at the UN rio meeting. Security threatening to kick us out.Good energy! #riofail

— Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) June 21, 2012

6.28pm: Liz Ford has this from the Future Women Want event (see 2.30pm update)

Michelle Bachelet, first head of UN Women. Photograph: Santiago Llanquin/AP

The head of UN Women, Michelle Bachelet, is a popular woman – in a good way. As she tried to leave the stage after the UN women leaders summit, she was mobbed. Violet Shivutse, a grassroots activist from Kenya, was one such admirer. Hovering by the stage, she told me the event, in which leaders were making a call on governments to prioritise gender equality, had given her hope.

She said both leaders and attendees were speaking with a more united voice. "What has been a problem is that women come to such conferences, but don't have common understanding with the people in leadership." She said she felt assured that something will happen, before moving off to get a hand shake and a kiss on the cheek from Bachelet.

The issue of whether the words 'reproductive rights' will appear in the final outcome document seems to be the biggest sticking point. The right was emphasised in Cairo in 1994 and again in Beijing in 1995, so why is it not appearing in the Rio document? There's a reference to reproductive health, but some argue that's not enough. Amanda Khozi Mukwashi, director of policy at VSO, said while she felt encouraged, the critical thing is how we translate any words into action.

6.51pm: Stanley Johnson, who was at the original Rio Earth summit in 1992 (and the Stockholm one in 1972, for that matter), has written some interesting analysis for us on why the lack of a call for a new version of the United Nations Environment Programme in the text – a so-called World Environment Organisation, or WEO, on a par with the WHO – is a good thing:

Stanley Johnson. Photograph: guardian.co.uk

in practice the decision would have been a giant step backwards. It would take years to negotiate the constitution and mandate of the new body. The treaty would have to be ratified, and conceivably, some countries such as the United States would have been unable or unwilling to join. More importantly, existing international structures could be fatally undermined, or at best left in limbo.

The truth of the matter is that there is already a world environmental agency in all but name, and that is the United Nations Environment Programme, which was proposed at that 1972 conference in Stockholm, and offically endorsed by the United Nations general assembly later that year. It is called UNEP. Go back and read the general assembly resolution and you will see that its mandate is near perfect. In this day and age, with all the economic and financial problems, there is no chance at all that such a mandate would be agreed.

6.55pm: There are some photos coming in from that protest (see 5.34pm update). I'm having problems embedding them here, but you can see some on the Twitter pages of Friends of the Earth's Craig Bennett, and actor Alex Farrow, amongst others.

7.13pm: Some of you have been asking what political leaders have been doing in Rio. Well, Nick Clegg's been to the football museum at the Maracanã stadium (here's why):

Nick Clegg during UN rio+20 Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 21 June 2012 Photograph: Alexandre Macieira/UK in Brazil

And environment secretary, Caroline Spelman, has been riding a bike. Well, something that looks like an exercise bike, attached to a screen with Google Maps and a rider's eye view of what looks like a traffic jam.

Caroline Spelman at the UN Rio+20 Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 17 June 2012 Photograph: UK in Brazil

That one's from the UK pavilion at Rio+20.

7.18pm: Environmental NGOs have been ratcheting up their rhetoric at what they perceive as a weak draft text adopted on Tuesday, Liz Ford reports:

Daniel Mittler, political director of Greenpeace, said: "The epic failure of Rio+20 was a reminder [that] short-term corporate profit rules over the interests of people." He said the outcome of the conference was "nothing short of disastrous", as governments came offering no money or commitments to action.

"They say they can't put money on the table because of the economic crisis, but they spend money on greedy banks and on saving those who caused the crisis. They spend $1 trillion a year on subsidies for fossil fuels and then tell us they don't have any money to give to sustainable development."

Lasse Gustavsson, executive director for conservation at WWF, said two years of "sophisticated UN diplomacy has given us nothing more than more poverty, more conflict and more environmental destruction". He said WWF had participated in numerous preparatory committee meetings in the runup to Rio, but there was very little to show from its efforts.

7.21pm: Twitter seems to be behaving again. Here are those protest pictures (see 5.34pm update). We'll have a story from Watts on the speeches very shortly:

Big protest by Peoples' Assembly going on in convention center #rioplus20 twitter.com/CraigBennett3/…
— Craig Bennett (@CraigBennett3) June 21, 2012

People Plenary at #RioPlus20 - the people are taking over! Great to finally see action. Security around. twitter.com/alexjamesfarro…

— Alex Farrow (@alexjamesfarrow) June 21, 2012

7.46pm: Here's Liz Ford, who's been talking to Greg Jones here.

She's been covering the angry reaction to the Rio+20 draft text from NGOs, as well as a UN Women event where there's surprise that a reference to reproductive rights hasn't been included in the text.

7.51pm: Following the #EndFossilFuelSubsidies Twitterstorm earlier this week, digital campaigning organisation Avaaz is taking out adverts in international editions of Friday's FT asking for Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff to reinsert a clause calling for the end of fossil fuel subsidies in the Rio+20 text. It's currently one of the omissions that has angered campaigners.

Photograph: Avaaz

Ricken Patel, executive director of Avaaz explains why they've booked the ads:

The $1 trillion in subsidies lavished on dirty energy companies is insane, but so far, no world leader has dared to challenge their oil-soaked interests. President Dilma is the only woman who can bridge the gap between developed and developing countries to lead the world away from its deadly fossil fuel addiction. The biggest environmental summit in 20 years rests on this one critical decision: will Dilma stand with the people or with polluters?

7.58pm: I'm signing off for today, but I'll leave you with Jonathan Watts' report of the protest earlier this afternoon by youth activists and US author and environmentalist Bill McKibben:

Activists protest at the conference center against the weakness of the UN Rio+20 agreement, 21 June 2012 Photograph: Alex Farrow

Protest erupted in the Rio+20 conference centre on Thursday as civil rights groups carried out a "ritual rip-up" of a negotiating text that they condemn as a betrayal of future generations.

Climate campaigner and founder of 350.org Bill McKibben joined youth delegates, indigenous groups and environmental NGOs in the raucous demonstration, which included speeches and songs in the walkway outside the plenary pavilion.

"We were promised leaps and bounds but this agreement barely moves us forward by inches," shouted Cam Fenton, a Canadian in the Major Group of Children and Youth, as protesters ripped up a giant mock text that they called "The Future We Bought".

"World leaders have delivered something that fails to move the world forward from the first Rio summit, showing up with empty promises at Rio+20," said Miariana Calderon, a young woman from California. "This text is a polluters' plan, and unless people start listening to the people, history will remember it as a failure for the people and the planet."