World leaders, along with thousands of participants from governments, the private sector, non-governmental organizations and other groups will come together next week in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to take part in the UN Sustainable Development Conference (Rio+20).

The conference aims to shape how countries and their citizens can reduce poverty, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection to achieve long-term growth.

Seven key areas have been identified by the UN as needing urgent attention: creation of jobs, access to energy, building sustainable cities, ensuring food security and sustainable agriculture, access to water, managements of oceans and disaster readiness.

The facts concerning energy:

*One in five people still lacks access to modern electricity;
*Three billion people rely on wood, coal, charcoal or animal waste for cooking and heating;
*Energy is the dominant contributor to climate change, accounting for around 60 percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions.

Economic development can and should proceed around the world under a whole series of new rules and new laws that allow us to do this in a sustainable way.

At the moment, the oceans are facing a number of very serious challenges and those challenges not only affect the environment. They also affect and threaten economic services that depend on oceans.

But what do each of them entail and how can people contribute to a sustainable future?

In UN News Centre website seven UN officials tell us more about each area and how we can contribute to make our planet more sustainable.