1. United Nations Conference On Environment And Development (UNCED)

Also known as the Rio Summit, Rio Conference, Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. The issues addressed included:

♤ Systematic scrutiny of patterns of production — particularly the production of toxic components, such as lead in gasoline, or poisonous waste including radioactive chemicals

♤ 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

The Earth Summit resulted in the following documents:

♤ Rio Declaration on Environment and Development

♤ Agenda 21

♤ Forest Principles

Moreover, two important legally binding agreements

1. Convention on Biological Diversity

2. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, often shortened to Rio Declaration, was a short document produced at the 1992 United Nations “Conference on Environment and Development” (UNCED), informally known as the Earth Summit. The Rio Declaration consisted of 27 principles intended to guide future sustainable development around the world.

Agenda 21

♤ Agenda 21 is an action plan of the United Nations (UN) related to sustainable development and was an outcome of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992.

♤ It is a comprehensive blueprint of action to be taken globally, nationally and locally by organizations of the UN, governments, and major groups in every area in which humans directly affect the environment.

♤ The number 21 refers to an agenda for the 21st century.

Local Agenda 21

♤ The implementation of Agenda 21 was intended to involve action at international, national, regional and local levels. Some national and state governments have legislated or advised that local authorities take steps to implement the plan locally, as recommended in Chapter 28 of the document. Such programmes are often known as ‘Local Agenda 21’ or ‘LA21’.

Agenda 21 for culture

♤ During the first World Public Meeting on Culture, held in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2002, it came up with the idea to draw up document guidelines for local cultural policies, a document comparable to what Agenda 21 meant in 1992 for the environment.

♤ The Agenda 21 for culture is the first document with worldwide mission that advocates establishing the groundwork of an undertaking by cities and local governments for cultural development.

Rio+5

♤ In 1997, the General Assembly of the UN held a special session to appraise five years of progress on the implementation of Agenda 21 (Rio +5).

♤ The Assembly recognized progress as ‘uneven’ and identified key trends including increasing globalization, widening inequalities in income and a continued deterioration of the global environment.

The Johannesburg Summit

♤ The Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, agreed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Earth Summit 2002) affirmed UN commitment to ‘full implementation’ of Agenda 21, alongside achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and other international agreements.

Rio +20

♤ “Rio+20” is the short name for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development which took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June 2012 - twenty years after the landmark 1992 Earth Summit in Rio.

♤ At the Rio+20 Conference, world leaders, along with thousands of participants from the private sector, NGOs and other groups, came together to shape how we can reduce poverty, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection on an ever more crowded planet.

♤ The official discussions focussed on two main themes:

1. how to build a green economy to achieve sustainable development and lift people out of poverty; and

2. how to improve international coordination for sustainable development.

♤ AT Rio+20, more than $513 billion was pledged to build a sustainable future. It signaled a major step forward in achieving the future we want.