The official but very lengthy and complex U.N. document has eloquently edited and clarified for use by all audiences.

This collection of in-depth case studies emphasizes the diversity and inventiveness of local initiatives since the Rio 'Earth Summit' within different national settings. From the Earth Summit to Local Agenda 21offers a realistic counterpoint to the official monitoring and assessment procedures of national governments and international bodies. It highlights the problems of assessment and policy evaluation and clearly sets out the policy stages necessary for more effective realization of Local Agenda 21 objectives.

Agenda 21 is a non-binding, voluntarily implemented action plan of the United Nations with regard to sustainable development. It is a product of the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. Its purpose is an action agenda for the UN, other multilateral organizations, and individual governments around the world that can be executed at local, national, and global levels. The "21" in Agenda 21 refers to the 21st century.

The first comprehensive examination of the Rio Earth Summit's accomplishments and failures, exploring in detail the political and economic conflicts that arose between developed and developing nations.

A muckraking expose of corporate greenwashing and of the disturbing trend toward U.N.-corporate "partnerships" that give corporations good PR without requiring them to improve their behavior. In the decade between the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 and the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, transnational corporations have increasingly used their resources to deter regulation, suppress opposing voices, and try to buy civil society's acquiescence with slick PR. But we don't have to acquiesce, and neither should the U.N. The United Nations may not be perfect, argue Kenny Bruno and Joshua Karliner, but in its principles and structure it has the potential to counter the WTO-a potential it is squandering, say the authors. earthsummit.biz exposes the current state of corporate rhetoric vs. corporate reality and debunks the paradigm of transnational "responsibility" and self-regulation. It contains 18 corporate case studies, as well as the complete texts of the U.N.'s toothless Global Compact with corporations, and the Global Compact's civil society counterpart, the Citizens Compact on the United Nations and Corporations.