THE 1992 EARTH SUMMIT IN RIO term paper

The UN Conference on Environment and Development, often referred to as the Earth Summit, took place in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Many heads of state and representatives of non-government organizations (NGOs) attended the conference. Expectations were high that the conference would produce a number of agreements on important environmental issues.

The main document produced by the conference was Agenda 21, an action plan divided into forty chapters. Agenda 21 called for individual governments to draw up national sustainable development economic strategies, that is, economic plans that would not push the environment beyond its natural limits. These plans would permit economic growth without causing irreparable damage to the environ ment. Since the conference, over one hundred nations have done this, but most reports are long on rhetoric and short on specific goals. To review national plans, the Earth Summit set up the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD). Unfortunately, CSD has no budget or regulatory powers.

Two other documents are closely associated with the Earth Summit. One is the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change. According to it, all countries were to prepare an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions and a national climate plan. Industrial countries were to hold emissions of greenhouse gases at or below the 1990 level by the year 2000. Developing countries were under no obligations, although it was hoped they could move quickly to sources of clean energy. Follow-up meetings in Berlin in 1995 and Kyoto in 1997 accomplished relatively little. The Convention on Biological Diversity (an attempt to slow the rate of extinction of plant and animal species), signed in 1992, has fared better. By November 1996, some 162 countries had ratified it. To date, however, the convention lacks targets, timetables, and enforcement mechanisms. Also connected with the Earth Summit is the Global Environment Facility (GEF), started as a pilot project before the meeting. In Agenda 21, it is seen as a mechanism for providing support for developing-country environmental projects. It has since become the interim funding arm of the climate and biodiversity conventions. Managed by the World Bank, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), and the UN Development Program (UNDP), it lacks adequate funding and suffers from a complicated management strategy. Although the Earth Summit has not and may never fulfill the expectations that existed in 1992, it did call attention to a number of environmental issues and established connections between these issues and development issues. It also created institutions and agreements that may bear fruit in the future.
Suggestions for Term Papers
1. Trace the efforts after the Earth Summit to improve the Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1995 (Berlin) and 1997 (Kyoto). You may wish to select a particular country and follow it in negotiations at the two meetings and in its efforts to construct a national climate plan.
2. Investigate the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). What kinds of activities has it been engaged in since the Earth Summit?
3. One issue that bears directly on all the other issues discussed at the Earth Summit is population. Write a report on the Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994.
4. Review the efforts since the Earth Summit to make the Convention on Biological Diversity an effective agreement.
5. Look at projects funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). How successful has it been, and how might its success or lack of success be best explained?
6. Working with a number of other students, organize and stage a mock Earth Summit based on current conditions and policy positions in several of the most important nations. What are the most important concerns, and what kinds of agreements might be possible?

Research Suggestions

In addition to the boldfaced items, look under the entries for “The Montreal Protocol, 1987” (#87) and “The Chinese Economy at the End of the Twentieth Century” (#100). Search under Earth Summit, World Bank, Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment (1972), International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994), and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UN).

SUGGESTED SOURCES

Primary Sources

Clinton, William J., and Albert Gore, Jr. The Climate Change Action Plan. Washington, D.C.: White House, 1993. The American national plan.

United Nations. Agenda 21: The United Nations Programme of Action from Rio. New York: U.N. Publications, 1992. The basic document produced at the 1992 meeting.

Secondary Sources

Flavin, Christopher. “The Legacy of Rio.” In Lester R. Brown et al., State of the World 1997. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997. A useful survey of progress made in dealing with the issue of global warming since 1992.

French, Hilary F. Partnership for the Planet: An Environmental Agenda for the United Nations. Worldwatch Paper 126. Washington, D.C.: Worldwatch Institute, July 1995. An excellent overview of prospects of international cooperation on environmental problems.

Grubb, Michael. The Earth Summit Agreements: A Guide and Assessment. London: Earthscan, 1993. A useful overview of the various documents associated with The Earth Summit.

Weizsäcker, Ernst von, Amory B. Lovins, and Hunter L. Lovins. Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use. The New Report to the Club of Rome. London: Earthscan, 1997. An important effort to demonstrate the possibility that action on global warming is not only economically feasible but also economically beneficial.

Wilson, E. O. The Diversity of Life. New York: W. W. Norton, 1992. A significant discussion of the importance of biological diversity by one of America’s leading authorities on social and environmental questions.

World Wide Web

“Earth Summit Documents.” http://www.ecouncil.ac.cr/ftp/riodoc.htm. An archive of basic documents available for downloading.

“Earth Summit Watch.” http://www.earthsummitwatch.org. A good source for up-to-date information on initiatives begun at the Earth Summit.



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