31 International conventions: The Earth Summit, Rio Declaration and Agenda 21

Ashutosh Jaiswal

epgp books

    Structure:

 

1.1 Introduction

 

1.2 Significance of Rio Earth Summit

 

1.3 Background of Earth Summit 1992

 

1.4 The Earth Summit Agreements

 

1.5 The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development

 

1.6 Agenda 21

 

1.7 The Statement of Forest Principles

 

1.8 Conclusion

 

 

Objectives:

 

Ø  To acquaint the importance of Earth Summit 1992?

 

Ø   To know about the reasons that led to Rio Summit?

 

Ø   What are the goals of Rio Declaration?

 

Ø   Why was Rio Summit held?

 

Ø   How Agenda 21 “Think Globally and Act Locally”.

 

 

 

1.1 Introduction

 

International Conventions and Laws are an effective means for translating environmental policies that incorporate global, regional and national priorities, concerns and practices into action. The development of international law is a dynamic process, which requires continuous examination of not only current, but also future environmental trends and challenges. International environmental law is inspired by a number of innovative ideas, concepts and principles, facilitative and enabling mechanisms, and procedures. Among these are the concepts of sustainable development, the precautionary approach, polluter pays, common concern for humankind, and common but differentiated responsibilities of countries. These concepts and norms have been incorporated in major environmental conventions such as the biodiversity convention, desertification convention, climate change convention etc. These unique and characteristic features of international environmental law are crucial for consolidating the interaction between environmental law and sustainable development, and have attracted the attention of both professionals and academics.

 

The Earth Summit was the biggest intergovernmental conference ever held. More correctly called the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), the summit was held on 3rd to 14th June 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to coincide with World Environment Day, June 5th 1992. Government officials from 178 countries and between 20,000 and 30,000 individuals from governments, NGOs and the media participated in this event to discuss solutions for global problems such as poverty, war or the growing gap between industrialized and developing countries. It emphasizes that economic and social progress depends critically on the preservation of the natural resource base with effective measures to prevent environmental degradation. An important achievement of the summit was an agreement on the Climate Change Convention which in turn led to the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. Another agreement was to “not to carry out any activities on the lands of indigenous peoples that would cause environmental degradation or that would be culturally inappropriate”.

 

The massive interest and participation of nations and NGOs in the Earth Summit indicated a shift in global attitudes toward the environment. Scientific evidence gathered in the second half of the twentieth century indicated that human activity was taking a toll on the environment. The scientific evidence also indicated that pollution and depletion of natural resources that occurred in one country could have a profound effect on the environment of other nations or the entire planet. At the Earth Summit, World leaders devised plans and policies to protect the environment by involving international, national, local governments and NGOs.

 

Taken together, they set the agenda on global environmental issues for the next several decades. The Earth Summit made it clear that we have reached a crossroad in the human experience. Human activities have brought the world to this critical juncture, and human activities are now the principal determinant of whether the future of our planet will be a secure and hospitable home for humankind. We are literally in command of our own evolution.

 

The Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro was unprecedented for a UN conference, in terms of both its size and the scope of its concerns. Twenty years after the first global environment conference, the UN sought to help Governments rethink economic development and find ways to halt the destruction of irreplaceable natural resources and pollution of the planet. Hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life were drawn into the Rio process. They persuaded their leaders to go to Rio and join other nations in making the difficult decisions needed to ensure a healthy planet for generations to come.

 

   The Summit’s message —

 

Nothing less than a transformation of our attitudes and behaviour would bring about the necessary changes it was transmitted by almost 10,000 on-site journalists and heard by millions around the world.

 

The message reflected the complexity of the problems facing us:

  • o that poverty
  • o As well as excessive consumption by affluent populations place damaging stress on the environment.

  Governments should recognize the need to redirect international and national plans and policies to ensure that all economic decisions fully took into account any environmental impact.

 

The message has produced results, making eco-efficiency a guiding principle for business and governments alike.

   

1.2 Significance of Rio Earth Summit

 

The Rio Earth Summit was important in at least three respects:

 

i. It was a watershed in terms of the burgeoning influence of global civil society (The Earth Summit was the first global conference to take place in a context of mass activism and heightened NGO involvement).

 

ii. The development was that Rio provided a template for future activist struggles, ensuring that from then onwards major conferences and international summits would be accompanied by demonstrations and popular protests (The Earth Summit marked an important step in the development of global environmental policy, particularly in relation to climate change).

 

iii. The Earth Summit influenced the scope and focus of all subsequent UN conferences. It did this by squarely acknowledging the interrelationship between global issues. Human rights, population control, social development, gender justice and environmental protection could no longer be viewed as discrete challenges, but had to be addressed holistically.

 

The Earth Summit succeeded in presenting new perspectives on economic progress. It was lauded as the beginning of a new era and its success would be measured by the implementation, locally, nationally and internationally of its agreements. Those attending the Summit understood that making the necessary changes would not be easy: it would be a multi-phased process; it would take place at different rates in different parts of the world; and it would require the expenditure of funds now in order to prevent much larger financial and environmental costs in the future.

 

1.3 Background of Earth Summit 1992

 

The relationship between economic development and environmental degradation was first placed on the international agenda in 1972, at the UN Conference on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm. After the Conference, Governments set up the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which today continues to act as a global catalyst for action to protect the environment. Little, however, was done in the succeeding years to integrate environmental concerns into national economic planning and decision-making. Overall, the environment continued to deteriorate, and such problems as ozone depletion, global warming and water pollution grew more serious, while the destruction of natural resources accelerated at an alarming rate.

 

Points to be noted:

 

The Stockholm Conference also gave birth to the World Commission on Environment and Development, known as the Brundtland Commission after its Chairperson, Gro Harlem Brundtland.

 

It was this commission’s report, “Our Common Future”, that called a global conference on environment and development.

 

UNCED (Earth Summit) was in fact inspired mainly by the Brundtland’ Report of 1987, which linked the environmental concerns of the North with the development concerns of the South.

 

The Brundtland report coined the term ‘Sustainable development’, pointing to both the wasteful and environmentally damaging effects of ‘over consumption’ in the developed countries and the equally destructive effects of poverty in the developing countries.

 

As a consequence of Brundtland rallies, on 22 December 1989, the United Nation General Assembly adopted resolution number 44/228, which set up the UN Conference on Environment and Development, which function·at the ‘highest possible level’.

 

the UN General Assembly’s decision (Resolution 44/228) on 22 December 1989 to convene the United Nations conference on Environment and Development in Brazil in 1992, an UNCED Preparatory Committee open to all member governments of the United Nations was established.

 

Prior to the creation of the Preparatory Committee (Prep Com), on 8 February 1990, United Nation Secretary- General Javier Perez de Cuellar had announced the appointment of Maurice Strong of Canada, a former member of the World Commission on Environment and Development, as UNCED’s Secretary General.

 

 

1.4The Earth Summit Agreements

 

In Rio, Government 108 represented by heads of State or Government and adopted three major agreements aimed at changing the traditional approach to development:

 

1. Agenda 21: a comprehensive programme of action for global action in all areas of sustainable development;

 

2. The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development: a series of principles defining the rights and responsibilities of States;

 

3. The Statement of Forest Principles :a set of principles to underlie the sustainable management of forests worldwide.

 

In addition, two legally binding Conventions aimed at preventing global climate change and the eradication of the diversity of biological species were opened for signature at the Summit, giving high profile to these efforts:

 

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and The Convention on Biological Diversity

 

1.5 The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development

 

The Rio Declaration on environment and development was approved by the United Nations during the Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro on June 1992. It was aimed at reaffirming the Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, adopted at Stockholm on June 1972.

 

The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development is a set of principles that defines the rights and responsibilities of nations in the areas of environmental protection and sustainable development. The Declaration adopted a set of principles to guide the future development. These principles define the right of people to development, and their responsibilities to safeguard the common environment.

 

“The Rio Declaration states that the only way to have long term economic progress is to link it with environmental protection”.

 

 

The aims of Rio Declaration will proceed towards success if nations establish a new and equitable global partnership involving governments, their people and key sectors of societies. They must build international agreements that protect the integrity of the global environmental and the developmental system. The Rio Declaration states that nations have the right to exploit natural resources within their borders if their actions do not affect the environment in other nations. It also calls on all national and local governments to develop and implement plans that preserve the environment and natural resources for future generations.

 

 

The Rio Declaration is a statement of 27 principles for:

 

the guidance of national environmental behaviour and enlisting general rights and obligations on environmental protection.

 

placing human beings at the centre of sustainable development concerns by stating that humans are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature.

 

happy and healthy life to all people in the world in order to achieve the goal of sustainable development.

 

the achievement of sustainable development, states shall reduce and eliminate unsustainable patterns of production and consumption, exchange of scientific and technological knowledge, compensation for adverse effects of environmental damage caused by activities with in their jurisdiction or control to areas beyond their jurisdiction,

 

precautionary approach being widely applied by states polluter should bear the cost of pollution, Environmental impact assessment as an instrument to monitor the likely environmental effects.

 

The document attempts to lay out the duties and the rights of the states and peoples towards the planet. As already mentioned, it has twenty-seven principles which were originally supposed to be thirty-three and officially complements the Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment, 1972. Its twenty-seven principles probably reflect more clearly and more concisely than any other Rio document the core philosophical assumptions and message of the entire UNCED process, i.e. basically it is a blend between the philosophy of the Brundtland report and the philosophy of the South Commission’s report. As such, the Rio declaration is a document that once more reaffirms the quasi-religious belief in industrial development, seeks to mobilize all human potential and natural resources to that effect, and reasserts nation-states as the primary units to promote such development. The preparatory debates over the declaration saw developing countries emphasizing development and equity, while developed countries emphasized environmental concerns. Among the contentions of the principles was the third, which affirmed the “right to development”, a clause intended to assure developing countries that their basic development plans would not be slowed or compromised. The United States issued a disclaimer, rejecting such a right on the grounds that it might be used to override other rights (such as civil rights). What all this adds up to is a clear recognition at Rio that economic backwardness damages the environment, that the resources to overcome it must come, at least in part, from the developed countries, and that until progress is made, environmentalism will be a low priority in the majority of the world’s countries. Much of this was summed up in Rio Declaration, the over-arching document expressing the spirit of the Rio gathering.

 

Among 27 principles it endorse is Principle Six which says

 

“The special situation and needs of developing countries, particularly the least developed and those most environmentally vulnerable, shall be given special priority. International actions in the field of environment and development should also address the interest and needs of all countries”.

 

1.6 Agenda 21

 

Agenda 21 – undoubtedly was the most important and complete documenting that came out of the Earth Summit. It has become the blueprint for sustainability and forms the basis for sustainable development strategies. Its recommendations range from new ways to educate, to new ways to care for natural resources and new ways to participate in shaping a sustainable economy. The overall objective of Agenda 21 was very ambitious for it was nothing less than designing a safe and just world with people in the South and North alike would live an equitable life within Earth’s capacities.

 

    What is Agenda 21?

 

“Humanity stands at a defining moment in history. We are confronted with a perpetuation ofdisparities between and within nations, a worsening of poverty, hunger, ill health and illiteracy, and the continuing deterioration of the ecosystems on which we depend for our well-being. However, integration of environment and development concerns and greater attention to them will lead to the fulfilment of basic needs, improved living standards for all, better protected and managed ecosystems and a safer more prosperous future. No one nation can achieve this on its own; but together we can – in a global partnership for sustainable development.”

 

Agenda 21 was the major document coming out of Rio and was devised to deal with some of the fundamental problems of resource degradation and aid to the developing world. It addresses many issues with respect to global sustainability and includes core chapters related to financing, the implementation of technology transfer and institutional follow-up to UNCED.

 

 

The primary goal of Agenda 21 is to :

 

ensure that development proceeds in a sustainable manner:

 

the system of incentives and penalties which motivate economic behaviour must be reoriented to become a strong force for sustainability.

 

to eliminate poverty throughout the world through better management of energy and natural resources and improvement of the quality of life by ensuring access to shelter and clean water, sewage and solid wast achieve the sustainable use of global and regional resources such as atmosphere, oceans, seas and freshwater and marine organisms.

 

The final goal is for improved management of chemicals and wastes. It is estimated that one third of the deaths in the third world are caused by food and water contaminated with human or industrial waste.

 

Agenda 21 is a comprehensive plan for intergovernmental agencies, national governments, local governments, and NGOs to work together to protect the environment through sustainable development. The United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development is primarily responsible for the implementation of Agenda 21. Agenda 21 recognized that developing nations and developed nations both contribute to environmental degradation. Poorer nations often have less restrictive environmental regulations and focus on economic development. Despite stronger environmental regulations, developed nations have patterns of production and consumption that pollute the environment. Agenda 21, therefore, addressed environmental issues through detailed social and economic proposals. Agenda 21 proposed addressing environmental issues through combating poverty, conserving and managing natural resources, preventing deforestation, promoting sustainable agriculture, addressing production and consumption patterns, and protecting the atmospheres and oceans.

    The four categories of Agenda 21 includes the following domain:

 

Part I: Social and Economic Dimension

 

1)  Preamble

 

2)  International co-operation to accelerate sustainable development m developing countries.

 

3)  Combating poverty.

 

4)  Changing consumption patterns.

 

5)  Demographic dynamics and sustainability.

 

6)  Protecting and promoting human health conditions.

 

7)  Promoting sustainable human settlement.

 

8)  Integrating environment and development in decision-making.

 

 

Part II: Conservation and Management of Resources for Development

 

9)  Protection of the atmosphere.

 

10)  Integrated approach to planning and management of land resources.

 

11)  Combating deforestation.

 

12)  Managing fragile ecosystems: combating desertification and drought.

 

13)  Managing fragile ecosystems: sustainable mountain development.

 

14)  Promoting sustainable agriculture and rural development.

 

15)  Conversation of biological diversity.

 

16)  Environmentally sound management of biotechnology.

 

17)   Protection of the oceans, all kinds of seas, including enclosed and semi-enclosed seas, and coastal areas.

 

18)  Protection of the quality and supply of fresh water resources.

 

19)  Environmentally sound management of toxic chemicals.

 

20)  Environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes.

 

21)  Environmentally sound management of solid waste and sewage related issues.

 

22)  Safe and environmentally sound management of radioactive wastes.

 

 

Part III: Strengthening Role of Major Groups

 

23)  Preamble.

 

24)  Global action for women towards sustainable and equable development.

 

25)  Children and youth in sustainable development.

 

26)  Recognizing and strengthening the role of indigenous people.

 

27)  Strengthening the role of non-governmental organizations.

 

28)  Local authorities’ initiatives in support of Agenda 21.

 

29)  Strengthening the role of workers and their trade unions.

 

30)  Strengthening the role of business and industry.

 

31)  Scientific and technological community.

 

32)  Strengthening the role of the farmers.

 

 

Part IV: Means of Implementation

 

33)  Financial resources and mechanisms.

 

34)  Technology transfer.

 

35)  Science for sustainable development.

 

36)  Promoting education, public awareness and training.

 

37)  National mechanisms and international co-operation for capacity building in the developing countries.

 

38)  International institutional arrangements.

 

39)  International legal instruments and mechanisms.

 

40)  Information for decision-making.

 

For implementation of these points a Commission on Sustainable Development was established as a high level forum on sustainable development. The United Nations Division for Sustainable Development acts as the secretariat to the Commission and works ‘within the context of’ Agenda 21.

 

At Rio, it was agreed that most financing for Agenda 21 would come from within a country’s own public and private sectors. However, new and additional external funds were considered necessary if developing countries were to adopt sustainable development practices. Of the estimated $600 billion required annually by developing countries to implement Agenda 21, most — $475 billion — was to be transferred from economic activities in those countries. A further $125 billion would be needed in new and additional funds from external sources, some $70 billion more than current levels of official development assistance (ODA). Other monies are available for implementation of Agenda 21. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) was set up in 1991. It is implemented by the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme. The GEF provides funding for activities aimed at achieving global environmental benefits in four areas: climate change, loss of biodiversity, pollution of international waters and the depletion of the ozone layer. Since 1992, some $2 billion has been pledged for activities supported by the GEF.

 

1.7 The Statement of Forest Principles

 

One of the key agreements reached at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit was the Principles of Forest Management. The Forest Principles (also Rio Forest Principles) is the informal name given to the Non-Legally Binding Authoritative Statement of Principles for a Global Consensus on the Management, Conservation and Sustainable Development of All Types of Forests (1992), a document produced at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), informally known as the Earth Summit. It is a non-legally binding document that makes several recommendations for conservation and sustainable development forestry. The Principles of Forest Management stated that forests, with their complex ecology, are essential to economic development and the maintenance of all forms of life. Forests provide wood, food, and medicine and contain a biological diversity as yet not fully uncovered. They also act as reservoirs (sinks) for carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas released into the atmosphere by human processes, which may be contributing towards global warming. As well as the scientific benefits of forests, they also provide a home to wildlife and fulfil our cultural and spiritual needs. The Statement of Forest Principles called for sustainable management of forests worldwide. It is a nonbinding document produced through compromise after developed nations refused to pay for the setting aside of national forests by developing nations. At the Earth Summit, the negotiation of the document was complicated by demands by developing nations in the Group of 77 for increased foreign aid in order to pay for the setting aside of forest reserves. Developed nations resisted those demands, and the final document was a compromise.

 

The Principles of Forest Management assert the right of nations to profit from their own forest resources, but recommend that this should occur within a framework of forest protection, management and conservation. The principles are not legally binding but provide recommendations on sustainable practice. The Statement of Forest Principles was the first global consensus reached on forests. Among its provisions:

 

1. That all countries, notably developed countries, should make an effort to “green the world” through reforestation and forest conservation;

 

2. That States have a right to develop forests according to their social, economic, ecological, cultural and spiritual needs of present and future generations;

 

3. Unique examples of forest should be protected, for example ancient forests and forests with cultural, historical, spiritual and religious importance.

 

4. Pollutants that harm forests should be controlled.

 

5. Forestry plans should consider the non-economic values of forests and the environmental consequences of their management. Forest degradation should be avoided.

 

6. That specific financial resources should be provided to develop programmes that encourage economic and social substitution policies.

 

    1.8 Conclusion

 

The Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro was unprecedented for a UN conference, in terms of both its size and the scope of its concerns. Twenty years after the first global environment conference, the UN sought to help Governments rethink economic development and find ways to halt the destruction of irreplaceable natural resources and pollution of the planet. Hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life were drawn into the Rio process. They persuaded their leaders to go to Rio and join other nations in making the difficult decisions needed to ensure a healthy planet for generations to come. The outcome of the Earth Summit 1992 Conference, in particular Agenda 21 and the Rio Principles, became instrumental in promoting the development and strengthening of institutional architecture for environmental protection and sustainable development at the national and international levels.

 

you can view video on International conventions: The Earth Summit, Rio Declaration and Agenda 21

 

References