Environment secretary, Margaret Beckett, has hailed a "truly remarkable" Earth summit.

Her statement in full.

"The overall outcome of this Johannesburg Summit is truly remarkable. We had to give it our best shot - to get the best deal we could - and we did. It's easy to make promises about the future: it's more difficult to take responsibility for the planet. I am in no doubt that our descendants will look back on this summit, and say we set out on a new path.

Sustainable development is the greatest challenge of our times. Johannesburg shows emphatically that not only do we need global solutions to global problems, but that we can achieve them. And that environment and development policy must be mutually reinforcing.

Tonight, after a marathon ministerial negotiation, we have effectively finalised the programme of implementation. This is a victory for everybody who wants to put sustainable development at the heart of everything we do.

Right from the outset Tony Blair has set a lead on sustainable development, not least with the five path-breaking UK sectoral initiatives for this summit.

We were ambitious - and rightly so.

As in all negotiations, we aimed high, and we ended up with more than we might have expected. I have always said that this summit should be more than fine words; it should be about a concrete step-change. This summit has clearly achieved targets and action plans for sanitation, fish stocks, chemicals, biodiversity and natural resources.

Johannesburg has seen the launch of a wide range of partnerships to deliver real outcomes in the pursuit of the agreed aims of the summit. This is a major new development in the international system, with government, business and NGOs accepting mutual responsibility for sustainable development.

The headlines are:

- Agreement on water and sanitation, which should save millions of lives, halving the number of people without access to clean water and basic sanitation by 2015.

- Better management of the oceans, action to conserve fish stocks, and development of marine protected areas.

- Action to protect biodiversity and natural resources.

- Action plans for sustainable production and consumption which will set us on a path to using resources more efficiently.

- Strong reaffirmation for action to ensure that in the review of the trade round, environment concerns are properly taken into account.

- Agreement on joint action to improve access to sustainable energy services for the two billion people who lack them.

- Agreement on the urgent need to increase substantially the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix; increased technological co-operation to fund support for developing countries.

- Agreement to phase out energy subsidies which inhibit sustainable development.

- A commitment to monitor, follow up and report transparently on how we meet our commitments on targets and action plans.

We came to Johannesburg to make a real difference to people's lives. I believe that we have succeeded. This is a victory for multi-lateralism, building on the success of Doha, Marrakech and Monterrey. Johannesburg was a critical step along the way and we must, and will, keep moving forward. "