Environmental

Development
Background: Timeline 1972-2012

1972 1992
Stockholm Rio de Janeiro
UN Conference on UN Conference on the
Sustainable Human Environment, 2002
Development Earth Summit Johannesburg
World Summit on
Sustainable
Development

1972 | 1982 | 1992 | 2002 | 2012

1987 1997
Brundtland Report New York 2012
“Our Common Rio de Janeiro
Rio+5
Future” UNGASS 19 UN Conference on
the Human
Environment,
Earth Summit
 Stockholm, 1972

The United Nations Conference on the Human

Environment in Stockholm put environmental issues on
the international agenda for the first time.

The Stockholm Conference, June 5-16, 1972 laid the groundwork

for progress in the environment and development.
Maurice Strong (left) with Conference President
One important outcome from Stockholm was the creation of the Ingemund Bengtsson (Credit: UN Photo)

UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

 Brundtland, 1987

The 1987 Brundtland Report, “Our Common Future,” helped define

sustainable development.

In 1983, UN Secretary-General asked Prime Minister of Norway to

create an organization independent of the UN to focus on
environmental and developmental
problems and solutions.
Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland
(Credit: The Leading Speakers Bureau)

The World Commission on Environment and Development, known as the Brundtland

Commission, was formed. The Commission’s report highlighted how growth rates in
both developing and industrialized nations would prove to be unsustainable.
 Montreal Protocol-1987
• The Montreal Protocol is the first worldwide
agreement designed to protect human health
and the environment against the adverse
effects of the depletion of the stratospheric
ozone layer. The protocol is administered by
the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP), which maintains the list of ozone-
depleting substances that are targeted for
control practices, reductions, or total phase-
outs.
 Earth Summit, 1992

The first global gathering on sustainability was the 1992 Earth

Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
(Credit: UN)

The Earth Summit – the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development
(UNCED) June 3-14 – produced Agenda 21, a blueprint to rethink economic growth, to
advance social equity and to ensure environmental protection.

More than 178 Governments adopted: Agenda 21, the Rio Declaration on Environment
and Development, and the Statement of Principles for the Sustainable Management of
Forests.
Two important legally binding agreements were opened for signatures: the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions; and, the Convention on Biological Diversity, to
conserve biodiversity. The Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) was
Overview: Rio+20, 2012

Rio+20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development

scheduled for June 20-21, 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is intended to set a
global sustainability agenda for the coming decade .

Delegates from 183 countries, some

of them represented by their
presidents, vice-presidents, and
premiers, along with more than
50,000 participants from
governments, the private sector,
non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) and other groups
attended.
 What is UNFCCC?
• UNCFFF [United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC or FCCC])
 An international environmental treaty negotiated at
the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development (UNCED), informally known as the Earth
Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro from June 3 to 14, 1992.
 The objective of the treaty is to stabilize greenhouse
gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that
would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference
with the climate system.
 Kyoto Protocol-1997
•
It is the first legally binding treaty aimed at cutting emissions of the
main greenhouse gases believed to contribute to global warming.
More than 150 nations signed it back in December 1997 at a meeting
in Kyoto.
• But they left much of the detail about how it would be implemented to
future talks. These dragged on, reaching a crisis in The Hague in
November 2000, when the US and the European Union failed to agree
and talks broke down. George W. Bush was installed as President soon
afterwards, and announced that he was pulling the US out of the deal
altogether.
• Since the US is the source of a quarter of emissions of greenhouse
gases that was a big blow, but the other nations decided to carry on
and they finally reached agreement in Marrakech in November 2001.