RIO EARTH SUMMIT, 1992

RIO EARTH SUMMIT, 1992

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

Ø  In 2012, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development was also held in Rio, and is also commonly called Rio+20 or Rio Earth Summit 2012. 255 governments participated, with 144 sending their heads of state or government. Some 2,400 representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) attended, with 17,000 people at the parallel NGO "Global Forum", who had Consultative Status.

Ø  The issues addressed at the Rio Earth Summit, 1992 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

·        global warming

Ø  An important achievement was an agreement on the Climate Change Convention which in turn led to the Kyoto Protocol.

Ø  Another agreement was to "not carry out any activities on the lands of indigenous peoples that would cause environmental degradation or that would be culturally inappropriate".

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

Ø  The Earth Summit resulted in the following documents:

Ø  Rio Declaration on Environment and Development

Ø  Agenda 21

Ø  Forest Principles

Ø  Moreover, two important legally binding agreements were opened for signature:

·        Convention on Biological Diversity

·        Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

Ø  It also created new international institutions, among them the Commission on Sustainable Development, tasked with the follow-up to the Rio Conference and led to the reform of the Global Environment Facility