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Last week at Rio+20, everyone from Prime Ministers to Amazonian Indians spoke of the importance of protecting tropical rainforests. The UK even announced a new initiative, aimed at capacity building in rainforest restoration. By an unusual coincidence (and unfortunate as far as my body clock is concerned...

(Written on Saturday) If you've seen the film by the same name, then you’ll know it’s about the catastrophic consequences of climate change, and they're depicted as spectacularly and fatally catastrophic. As I write this, at 31000 feet over the Atlantic, the day after tomorrow...

(Written on Friday) The Rio conference is over. Tim and I are sitting in the tropical heat of our little flat overlooking the conference centre with the noise of the 20 diesel generators powering the vast halls coming through the door. Since yesterday’s rain, a new range of mountains has been...

To tune into the live webchat on the Guardian website from 1 to 2 pm today where RSPB's Tim Stowe and Tearfund's Laura Taylor and Serguem Jessui Machado de Silva will be answering your questions on Rio+20.

Walking into the aircraft hangar-sized food hall on Wednesday morning the giant screen was relaying, live from the main Rio chamber, the speech from a Prime Minister. He was talking about the development and environmental problems of his country. When we left the conference centre last night, a strikingly...

The last few days have seen Tim Stowe and Sacha Cleminson updating us on what's happening from the heart of Rio+20, but now it's your chance to dig a little deeper. Between 1 and 2 pm tomorrow, the Guardian is hosting a live web chat with an expert panel from Stop Climate Chaos including Tim...

The last few days have seen Tim Stowe and Sacha Cleminson updating us on what's happening from the heart of Rio+20, but now it's your chance to dig a little deeper. Between 1 and 2 pm tomorrow, the Guardian is hosting a live web chat with an expert panel from Stop Climate Chaos including Tim...

Throughout Tuesday night and yesterday morning, police outriders' sirens could be heard regularly from the streets below our apartment and at least 3 helicopters were patrolling the skies. The Heads of State were arriving and traffic chaos ensued. The formal part of the Rio+20 conference was opened...

Thanks to some forensic detective work by one of my admin team, we have a brilliant place to stay here in Rio. It’s on the 11 th floor in a block of flats overlooking the conference centre, with a view to the hills behind and every morning this week the sun has risen amidst flames of reds, oranges...

Since we’ve been in Rio I’ve been struggling to stop humming Copacabana (the name of a beach here), the girl from Ipanema (Ipanema, another beach) and Her name is Rio . Not sure it makes me look good in the convention centre … or in front of my boss. There are some fabulous hats...

Our guides from Save Brasil and the Brazilian Nature Agency had just finished explaining the importance of the Atlantic Forests of Brazil and were ushering us towards the forest when a dazzling emerald blur whizzed in front of us. It danced over the crimson flowers, pausing to peer between the petals...

As the sun broke the skyline behind Rio Centro - the location of the global Summit on sustainable development - several black vultures flew out across the city. It didn’t seem like a good sign. Sacha and I arrived at the venue, a 10 min walk from our lodgings, collected our security passes, removed...

The mention of Rio to the ordinary traveller conjures up images of sun-scorched beaches, sugar loaf mountain and the iconic statue. But, for most people working to protect nature, Rio has another meaning - the setting of the first Earth Summit and birthplace of two global conservation agreements. It...

It’s nine pm, I’m off to the Rio+20 earth summit in the morning and my wife, who’s a mean writer, is coaching me on blogging so I can get on and pack my bag. Just as I put ‘pen’ to paper, my French-speaking Mum calls to sort our her mystifying tax situation. The evening...

At Nick Clegg’s pre Rio+20 reception yesterday, there was lot of excited anticipation about the impending earth summit. It may have already started, but things don't really kick off until next week and many in the room, including the Deputy Prime Minister and Caroline Spelman, were yet to travel...

In a couple of weeks time all eyes will be turning to Rio as the Earth Summit returns to Brazil twenty years after the iconic meeting of 1992. This will be the third and biggest in a series of landmark global gatherings that aims to find a balance between economic growth and environmental protection...