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The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, June 1992, was a unique event in the annals of international affairs. The ‘Earth Summit’ brought more heads of state and government together than any previous meeting – well over 100, with a 178 governments represented in all. Five separate agreements were signed by most of the participating governments. Thirty thousand people descended upon the city, and the Summit received a blaze of publicity around the world.
In addition to the intergovernmental conference, over 500 different groups with special concerns and expertise on environment and development issues gathered at the parallel Global Forum in Rio, with intensive debate and discussion on wide range ranging issues around the central theme, often including officials from the governmental conference. A major ECOTECH forum and exhibition presented and discussed issues surrounding environmental technology, and dozens of other special events and exhibitions were held around the city.
Yet despite the vast effort devoted to it, and the unprecedented press coverage which it received, to many the Earth Summit is still a mystery. Publicity value apart, the outcome of the Earth Summit has been labelled as everything from a disastrous fiasco to an outstanding success. Which was it; indeed, what was it? What came out of it? What was actually agreed, and what does it mean for the future of environment and development issues?
This report does not attempt to be a comprehensive guide to UNCED; such a task may be impossible, because the enterprise was so huge and complex.1 Rather, following a short introduction to the origins of and build-up to the UNCED conference in the next chapter, this report focuses upon the official agreements signed at Rio, and the themes and lessons which emerge both from them and the negotiating process. The study highlights the more important areas and offers preliminary observations on important themes and their possible implications for the future development of environment and development issues. The general conclusions from the study, and some observations on prospects for the follow-up process, are presented in Part I. Part II then summarises and examines the individual agreements, including a short review of the processes which led to them, and their likely implications.
1 For sources of the full texts and further information, see Appendix 2.
In this study, we do not seek to analyse in depth all the technical, legal and political aspects of each agreement, which are too complex and varied for a report of this nature. Nor do we examine the many non-governmental activities and publications associated with the conference (including the ‘Alternative Conventions’ negotiated among environment and development groups), except in so far as they bear directly upon the governmental texts or may have other important ramifications for future developments. Rather, the primary purpose is to give the reader a reference to the official agreements and understanding of their nature and main contents, and to highlight some of the central themes to emerge from the conference and negotiating process as they may bear upon the prospects for follow-up. In doing so, we seek to convey a broad understanding of the central business and legacy of UNCED.
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Chapter 2
The Road to Rio
2.1 Introduction
Concern about the state of the natural environment has deep historical roots, but the nature and scale of concerns, and their political importance, has grown and changed considerably since the wave of environmental protests which swept across developed countries during the 1960s.1 These debates were directed primarily at local and occasionally regional problems; none appeared to exist at the global level. The lead issues primarily concerned toxic and chemical pollution, such as pesticides, issues which helped to launch the modern environmental movements.2 Other local problems, such as urban air pollution, were often addressed either by technical fixes to clean up emissions and where necessary dump the residues, or by transferring pollutants into less critical environmental media or by spreading them over a wider area (eg. the ‘high chimney policy’ adopted to disperse stack emissions). Regulations for some environmental media were developed, but different areas were generally considered separately with little attention paid to their interrelation and interaction. Many years later, limitations to waste dumping, and the potentially devastating effects of the steady accumulation of pollutants in the biosphere became recognised, eg. the acidification of woodlands and lakes, and development of the Antarctic ‘ozone hole’ and broader ozone depletion.3
International agreements addressing environmental concerns are also nothing new. Specific agreements on the protection of particular species, especially migratory birds, date back to well before the First World War. The international Maritime Organisation sought guidelines to address ocean pollution in the 1950s. There was, however, little attempt to address underlying issues of environmental quality in any coherent way until the early 1970s.
1 For an analysis of the development of environmental concerns on the international agenda, see Caroline Thomas, The Environment in International Relations, The Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, 1992, Chapter 2.
2 Notably, Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, H.Hamilton, London, 1963.
3 The ‘ozone hole’ is a large area, now expanding out beyond Antarctica to southern parts of Latin America, Australia and New Zealand, in which a rapid and extensive destruction of ozone in the upper atmosphere occurs every spring. The reactions involved are complex and depend upon the very low temperatures in this region, but human emissions of chloroflourocarbon gases (CFCs) are clearly implicated. The ‘ozone hole’ was an entirely unexpected phenomena; scientists partially understood the underlying reactions, but had overlooked the potential for very cold ice crystals to ‘catalyse’ destruction at a very much faster rate than predicted. Moderate but accelerating loss of ozone over the Arctic has also been observed, and the global ozone layer is now declining in part because of the destruction at the poles, adding further to perceptions and fears about major, uncontrollable and unpredictable impacts of human activities on the planetary system. Future global warming at the surface, at the expense of cooling in the upper atmosphere, is expected to exacerbate the problem.
2.2 The Stockholm Conference
In 1968, at the prompting largely of the Swedish ambassador to the UN, the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) issued a call which led directly to the UN Conference on the Human Environment at Stockholm in 1972.4
Environmental concern in developed countries, particularly the acidification of Scandinavian aquatic systems, was the major factor which led to the Stockholm Conference. During the preparatory work, the emphasis on pollution shifted towards including concerns of developing countries. Initially, many developing countries considered environmental protection as a luxury to be addressed when developmental issues were solved, and were wary of the planned conference. A meeting of experts convened at Founex in Switzerland in 1971 claimed to result in ‘the first comprehensive document on the development-environment issue’, and helped to produce a more sophisticated view than simple fear of environmental constraints as an impediment to development;5 anticipating UNCED debates, it ‘… identified environment as a critical dimension of successful development’.6 Indeed, the Founex report outlined many issues which have remained in the debate ever since, including the overriding priority of development for poor countries, the differing environmental priorities of different countries, and the potential international issues raised by domestic environmental policies.
Against this background, the Stockholm Conference brought together representatives of 113 countries and 400 intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and addressed to some extent the concerns brought forward by both the developed and developing countries. It formally recognised the importance of environmental concerns at the national level and transformed environmental affairs into an international political issue.
4 For a detailed discussion on the preparation and outcome of the Stockholm Conference, see: John McCormick, The Global Environmental Movement, Reclaiming Paradise, Belhaven Press, London, 1989.
5 Miguel Ozorio de Almeida, WilfredBeckerman, Ignacy Sachs, and Gamani Corea, Environment and Development, International Conciliation, Carnegie Document No.586, New York, January 1972.
6 Richard Sandbrook, ‘The UK’s overseas environmental policy’, in The Conservation and Development Programme for the UK: A Response to the World Conservation Strategy, Kogan Page, London, 1983, p.388; cited in McCormick op.cit., p.92.
The agreed documents were the Stockholm Declaration on Human Environment and the Action Plan for the Human Environment. The Stockholm Declaration, consisting of preamble and 26 principles, addressed the major areas related to environmental issues, ranging from education and science to social and economic development and from resources to pollution.7 The Action Plan was a functional framework of 109 recommendations and ‘consisted of three parts: (i) a global assessment programme…; (ii) environmental management activities; and (iii) supporting measures, such as education and training..’..8 The interaction of environment and development was formally recognised in the final documents, notably in several principles of the Stockholm Declaration.9 However, in terms of real commitments in the Action Plan, development issues were not covered in much detail, and only the human settlement policies were addressed in depth.10
The Stockholm Conference had several important outcomes.11 It did a great deal to promote development of national environment policies, notably the creation in many countries of environment agencies and ministries. Extensive national environmental legislation followed, mainly (though not exclusively) in the industrialised countries. At the international level, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was created as a catalyst for promoting awareness and action concerning environmental issues within the UN system.12 In addition, the Declaration established a number of principles, such as that of the sovereign right to exploit national resources coupled with responsibility for transboundary pollution, that later became enshrined in international conventions.
7 Edmund Jan Osmanczyk, The Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements, Taylor and Francis, London, 1990, p.874–876.
8 Yearbook of the United Nations 1972, Vol. 26, United Nations Office of Public Information, New York, 1975, pp.318–337.
9 Principles 8, 11, 13 address this directly; objectives with reference to developing countries also include principles 9, 10, 12, 20, and 23.
10 Yearbook of the United Nations 1972, op.cit., p.322
11 Maurice Strong, ‘From Stockholm to Rio: A Journey down a generation’; in; In Our Hands,Earth Summit ‘92, UNCED Secretariat, Geneva 1991; A. O. Adede, ‘International environmental law from Stockholm to Rio, an overview of past lessons and future challenges’, Environmental Policy and Law, Vol. 22, No. 2, 1992, pp. 88–105, p.88. See also, McCormick, op.cit, p.104–105.
12 ‘Unlike other specialised agencies .. UNEP does not bear the prime responsibility within the UN system for executing projects within its area of concern. Nor does it exist to fund them … UNEP pursues its goals with a multitude of different partners .. nearly everything UNEP does falls under the headings of catalysis, coordination or stimulation’ UNEP- Two Decades of Achievement and Challenge, UNEP, 1992, p.8–9.
2.3 From Stockholm to the Brundtland Commission
Several initiatives on international environment and development issues followed in the 1970s and 1980s. The Law of the Sea, including measures relating to marine pollution, was negotiated throughout the 1970s and finally completed in 1982. Specific environmental agreements included the London Dumping Convention, the Basel Convention on transboundary movements of wastes, and the Vienna Convention on the Protection of the Ozone Layer (and its Montreal Protocol), together with regional initiatives such as the Mediterranean Action Plan and other regional seas programmes under UNEP, and regional agreements on transboundary air pollution in Europe and North America. A number of North-South agreements were also developed with respect to aid and trade. In addition to these specific agreements, the UN established the Brandt Commission on North-South issues,13 and the Palme Commission on security and disarmament which also touched upon developmental aspects of militarisation.
Yet concern continued to rise. Environmental problems grew visibly from local to regional and then to the global level. Not only the local impact of specific human activities, but the overall impact of human numbers and behaviour began to receive attention. It became increasingly clear that many of these environmental problems were inextricably linked with broader aspects of social and economic development.
In parallel, efforts on Third World development had to cope with major setbacks. Increasing burdens of international debt, reaching crisis proportions in the early 1980s, undermined the hopes and efforts o...
