Earth Summit

 

(UNCED) or Earth Summit, an 11-day meeting held in June, 1992, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to discuss the global conflict between economic development and environmental protection. Representatives of 172 nations agreed to work toward the sustainable development of the planet, although most of the agreements were not legally binding. Sustainable development is the growth of population, industry, and agriculture in a way that will allow the present generation to meet its own needs without damaging those of future generations. Two binding declarations–to minimize global climate change (see global warming) and to stem the depletion of the world's inventory of biological diversity were signed by more than 150 countries at the conference, with others expected to sign later. Other documents concerned the financing of environmental and forest protection, technology transfer, and such diverse subjects as desertification and atmospheric pollution; the responsibilities and rights of nations in development-environment issues; and the sustainable management of the earth's forests.

See acid rain; air pollution; conservation of natural resources; ecology; environmentalism; pollution; solid waste; toxic waste; water pollution.

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, also known as the Earth Summit (or, in Portuguese, Eco '92) was a major conference held in Rio de Janeiro from June 3 to June 14, 1992.

178 governments participated, with 118 sending their heads of state or government.^[1] Some 2,400 representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) attended, with 17,000 people at the parallel NGO Forum, who had so-called Consultative Status.

The issues addressed included:

• systematic scrutiny of patterns of production — particularly the production of toxic components, such as lead in gasoline, or poisonous waste
• alternative sources of energy to replace the use of fossil fuels which are linked to global climate change
• new reliance on public transportation systems in order to reduce vehicle emissions, congestion in cities and the health problems caused by polluted air and smog
• the growing scarcity of water

An important achievement was an agreement on the Climate Change Convention which in turn led to the Kyoto Protocol. Another was agreement to "not carry out any activities on the lands of indigenous peoples that would cause environmental degradation or that would be culturally inappropriate".

The Convention on Biological Diversity was opened for signature at the Earth Summit, and made a start towards redefinition of money supply measures that did not inherently encourage destruction of natural ecoregions and so-called uneconomic growth.

Twelve cities were also honoured by the Local Government Honours Award for innovative local environmental programs. These included Sudbury, Ontario in Canada for its ambitious program to rehabilitate environmental damage from the local mining industry, Austin, Texas in the United States for its green building strategy, and Kitakyushu in Japan for incorporating an international education and training component into its municipal pollution control program.

The Earth Summit resulted in the following documents:

• Rio Declaration on Environment and Development [1]
• Agenda 21 [2], [3]
• Convention on Biological Diversity [4]
• Forest Principles
• Framework Convention on Climate Change

Both Convention on Biological Diversity and Framework Convention on Climate Change were set as legally binding agreements.

Critics, however, point out that many of the agreements made in Rio have not been realized regarding such fundamental issues as fighting poverty and cleaning up the environment.

Commission for Sustainable Development

CSD has served as the UN high-level forum for sustainable development issues since 1992, when it was established by the UN General Assembly to ensure effective follow-up to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro. CSD meets annually at UN Headquarters; its focus themes for 2006/2007 are energy for sustainable development, industrial development, air pollution/atmosphere and climate change.

References

External links

• video: George Hunt reviews UNCED 1992
• video: 13 year old speaks for Envinronmental Children Organization UNCED 1992

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