One of the strongest messages developed countries sent to developing nations at June’s United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro was not to expect large amounts of financial aid for sustainable-development initiatives. Developing countries including Mexico and Colombia delivered an equally strong message in return: they aren’t counting on it.

The North-South financing paradigm had been a centerpiece of the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio in 1992, which led to important conventions on climate change, biodiversity and desertification. But at this year’s much less ambitious summit, called Rio+20, developed countries, hit hard by the global economic crisis, shied away from financing commitments aimed at helping developing ones make their economies more sustainable.