According to the paper, culture should be made the fourth pillar of sustainability (the others being the environmental, social, and economic pillar). The paper talks about the role of culture in sustainable development in the past two decades, from the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 leading up to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in 2012. It evaluates the work of the Secretariat of Rio+20 and the Final Outcome Document which concluded Rio+20.