This is the first time the World Wilderness Congress, a kind of global environmental summit, has been held in the United States.

They also really mean it when they talk about getting education ministers more involved in global summits and radically transforming our public diplomacy.

To understand why Rio matters and what it could achieve, we need to look back and learn the lessons of recent global summits.

First, global summits don't make big promises unless civil society demands it.

The World Business Forum, a global summit for business executives.

The real story is how one of the most important global summits of the decade risks being wrecked by the rich north.

Do global summits still have a role?

Unemployment is on the increase wherever we look, and we are just weeks away from a crucial global summit on climate change.

There is a global nuclear summit in March 2010 where the EU will be present, of course, as well.

There's more at stake in global summits than when nations hand pick negotiating partners.