Leaders from around the globe gathered Wednesday to open three days of talks at the United Nations conference on sustainable development, where a sober, unambitious mood prevailed as negotiators produced what critics called a watered-down document that makes few advances on protecting the environment.

 

Negotiators worked for months to hammer out a document that many hoped would lay out clear goals on how nations could promote sustainable development — making economic advances without eating up the globe's resources.

But with time running out, contentious issues like technology transfers from rich to poor nations and new financing for developing countries were set aside.