Thirty Years of Rio Summit

Thirty Years of Rio Summit

Subject: Environment

Section: Climate Change

Context: While this June marks the 30^th anniversary of the Rio Summit, the United Nations is not organising an event to mark it.

Concept:

• India and China were considered developing countries when the Rio Summit, or the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, was organised in They were not included in the list of countries that needed to have greenhouse gas emission reduction targets in the Climate Change Convention.
• The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the ‘Earth Summit’, was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 3-14 June 1992. This global conference, held on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the first Human Environment Conference in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1972, brought together political leaders, diplomats, scientists, representatives of the media and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from 179 countries for a massive effort to focus on the impact of human socio-economic activities on the environment.
• A ‘Global Forum’ of NGOs was also held in Rio de Janeiro at the same time, bringing together an unprecedented number of NGO representatives, who presented their own vision of the world’s future in relation to the environment and socio-economic development.
• One of the major results of the UNCED Conference was Agenda 21, a daring program of action calling for new strategies to invest in the future to achieve overall sustainable development in the 21st century. Its recommendations ranged from new methods of education, to new ways of preserving natural resources and new ways of participating in a sustainable economy.
• The ‘Earth Summit’ had many great achievements: the Rio Declaration and its 27 universal principles, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Convention on Biological Diversity; and the Declaration on the principles of forest management .
• The ‘Earth Summit’ also led to the creation of the Commission on Sustainable Development, the holding of first world conference on the sustainable development of small island developing States in 1994, and negotiations for the establishment of the agreement on straddling stocks and highly migratory fish stocks.

The Earth Summit resulted in the following documents:

• Rio Declaration on Environment and Development
• Agenda 21
• Forest Principles

Moreover, important legally binding agreements (Rio Convention) were opened for signature:

• Convention on Biological Diversity
• Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

India’s Effort:

• PM’s council on Climate Change was constituted in 2008 which was followed by NAPCC with its 8 constituent missions.
• India was one of the earliest countries to develop a legislation to implement the commitments under the Biodiversity Convention. Biological Diversity Act 2002 came into force and The National Biodiversity Authority was established in Chennai under the Act, and till date there are 28 state biodiversity boards, eight biodiversity councils and nearly 2 lakh biodiversity management committees attached to the panchayat level institutions.