The Earth Summit: the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED)

As the United Nations General Assembly affirmed when announcing the adoption of 2017 as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development, tourism can contribute to all the three dimensions of sustainable development – economic, social and environmental – and each of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Not only does the sector spearhead growth, it also improves the quality of people’s lives. It can bolster environmental protection, champion diverse cultural heritage, and strengthen peace in the world. In this spirit, World Tourism Day 2017 presents a unique opportunity to raise awareness on the contribution of sustainable tourism for development among public and private sector decision-makers and the international community, while mobilizing all stakeholders to work together in making tourism a catalyst for positive change. Accounting for 7% of worldwide exports, one in eleven jobs and 10% of the world’s GDP, the tourism sector if well managed can foster inclusive economic growth, social inclusiveness and the protection of cultural and natural assets. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, is plan of action for the people, planet and prosperity. In accordance with paragraph 84 of the 2030 Agenda, Member States have decided that the High Level Political Forum shall carry out regular voluntary reviews of the 2030 Agenda which will include developed and developing countries as well as relevant UN entities and other stakeholders. The reviews were state-led, involving ministerial and other relevant high-level participants, and provide a platform for partnerships, including through the participation of major groups and other relevant stakeholders. Since the first United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 - known as the Earth Summit, it was recognized that achieving sustainable development would require the active participation of all sectors of society and all types of people. Agenda 21, adopted at the Earth Summit, drew upon this sentiment and formalized nine sectors of society as the main channels through which broad participation would be facilitated in UN activities related to sustainable development. It also seeks to strengthen universal peace in larger freedom, in the same time recognising that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development. All countries and all stakeholders, has committed that acting in collaborative partnership, will implement this plan.

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Discovering the Future Canadians Want: Insights from the We Canada Cross-Country Tour

Earth Common Journal ◽

10.31542/j.ecj.59 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

Author(s):

A. Nasteska and V. Wee

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Civil Society ◽

United Nations ◽

Environmental Issues ◽

Civil Society Organizations ◽

Government Officials ◽

Earth Summit ◽

Environment And Development ◽

The United Nations ◽

Heads Of State

In 1972, the first United Nations Conference on Human Environment (UNCED) was held in Stockholm, Sweden. At the conference, government officials from industrialized and developing nations met alongside civil society organizations to create the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). “This conference put environmental issues on the international agenda for the first time, and marked a turning point in the development of international environmental politics. It has also been recognized as the beginning of modern political and public awareness of global environmental issues” (Baylis & Smith, 2005, pp. 454-455). Twenty years later, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio Earth Summit, was held in Rio de Janeiro. One hundred and seventy two government officials participated, of which 108 were heads of state (United Nations, 1992, United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, para. 1). This conference was one of the largest gatherings of heads of state, civil society organizations, and individuals in human history to date. Stakeholders met with the purpose of charting a course for a more sustainable future. From the conference emerged agreements, most notably Agenda 21, which created a framework for developing global, national, and regional plans for sustainability. The Rio Earth Summit has since stood as an example of what is possible when governments and citizens work together. The outcomes of this conference still affect human lives today, mainly through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meetings, which led to the Kyoto Protocol, the only legally binding agreement to cut down carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, also known as Earth Summit 2012 or Rio+20, is regarded as one of the most crucial events in United Nations history and has been referred to by the Secretary General of the United Nations (2011), Ban Ki-moon, as “the most important global meeting on sustainable development in our time" (The Future We Want, p 2).

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Earth summit 1992: The united nations conference on environment and development, rio de janeiro 1992

Global Environmental Change ◽

10.1016/0959-3780(94)90027-2 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 87-88 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

David Freestone

Keyword(s):

United Nations ◽

Rio De Janeiro ◽

Earth Summit ◽

Environment And Development ◽

The United Nations

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From Stockholm to Rio and beyond: the impact of the environmental movement on the United Nations consultative arrangements for NGOs

Review of International Studies ◽

10.1017/s0260210500118455 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

pp. 57-80 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Peter Willetts

Keyword(s):

United Nations ◽

General View ◽

Earth Summit ◽

Governmental Organizations ◽

The Earth ◽

Non Governmental Organizations ◽

The Media ◽

The United Nations ◽

The Government ◽

The Impact

No account of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, held at Rio de Janeiro in June 1992 and popularly known as the Earth Summit, would be complete without coverage of the activity of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). They generated debate with the government and in the media in many, perhaps most, countries. They took part in the preparatory work, wrote special reports, joined governmental delegations to Rio and ran a large forum in parallel to the official conference. UN officials have described the role of NGOs as having been ‘unprecedented‘, and that is the general view. It is less widely known that NGOs have been influential at UN conferences for decades and that they were in danger of having less access than normal to the Earth Summit. Far from the situation being ‘unprecedented’, the NGOs made such an impact at Rio because the weight of precedents made it impossible to restrict their numbers and their activities.

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Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law

The American Journal of International Law ◽

10.2307/2203855 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 87 (1) ◽

pp. 103-111

Author(s):

Marian Nash

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

United States ◽

New York ◽

United Nations ◽

International Law ◽

The United States ◽

George Bush ◽

Environment And Development ◽

The United Nations ◽

Contemporary Practice

On September 8, 1992, President George Bush transmitted to the Senate for advice and consent to ratification the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, adopted at New York on May 9, 1992, by the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for a Framework Convention on Climate Change and signed on behalf of the United States at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro on June 12, 1992.

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Editorial

Open House International ◽

10.1108/ohi-03-2008-b0001 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 33 (3) ◽

pp. 6-6

Author(s):

Masa Noguchi

Keyword(s):

United Nations ◽

Technological Development ◽

Gas Emissions ◽

Environmentally Sustainable ◽

Legal Enforcement ◽

Societal Pressure ◽

Industrialized Nations ◽

Future Potential ◽

Environment And Development ◽

The United Nations

Homes need to be socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable in response to societal pressure on our common future. The concept of ‘Sustainable Development’ was first advocated by the World Commission on Environment and Development, dated back to 1987, and it was considered as ‘a process of change in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technological development, and institutional change are all in harmony and enhance both current and future potential to meet needs and aspirations.’ In 1992, this notion was given additional impetus at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (or the Earth Summit) held in Rio de Janeiro where an initial international treaty on environment was produced; however, this had neither limits on green house gas emissions nor legal enforcement provisions for individual nations. In 1997, the text of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was adopted eventually at the 3rd Conference of the Parties held in Kyoto, Japan. As of April 2008, 178 states signed and ratified the Protocol; in consequence, most industrialized nations and some central European countries agreed to legally binding the reductions of greenhouse gas emissions of an average of 6 to 8% below 1990 levels between the years 2008 and 2012.

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