Development & Aid, Environment, Tierramerica

Environmental Conferences

Aug 18 2002 (IPS) - Thirty years ago the United Nations convened the first world conference on the environment and development. In 2002, on the eve of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, to take place in South Africa, the challenge is to create a consensus-based action plan to save the planet.

The first meeting convened by the UN was the Conference on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm in June 1972. At that time, the issue was not yet part of the international agenda, nor was it a major concern of governments, most of which lacked any institutions related to environmental protection.

The final declaration of the Stockholm meeting stressed the responsibility of humans in preserving their natural surroundings. It was the beginning of a debate that continues to this day. As a result of the 1972 conference, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) was created.

Twenty years passed before the next international environmental meeting. In 1992, the UN Conference on Environment and Development, also known as the Earth Summit, drew thousands of world leaders, experts and activists to the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro.

That was the highest-level global meeting ever: 172 countries sent delegations, and an unprecedented 107 heads of state, along with tens of thousands of civil society representatives. The government leaders signed a series of commitments, the most important of which was Agenda 21, which outlines a plan of action for achieving human development that is compatible with the protection of the planet.

In fact, a key contribution of that Earth Summit was the dissemination of the notion of sustainable development, in other words, measures that allow us to meet the needs of people today without compromising the ability of future generations to provide for their needs.

The Rio Conference, which had been preceded by the successful UN Summit on Children, triggered planning for a whole series of world conferences under the auspices of the United Nations.

And another decade passed before the environment once again became the subject of another high-level meet. From Aug 26 to Sep 4 the South African city of Johannesburg will be the scenario for the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

The conference is also known as Rio+10 because it is being held 10 years after the Earth Summit. One of the objectives is to evaluate progress made on the commitments made in Brazil, on protecting biodiversity and the ozone layer, for example. But there is also the underlying challenge to launch a new strategy for achieving true sustainable development.

Will it be possible to meet that goal? That is the big question hovering over the Rio+10 Summit