Earth Summit
The Earth Summit refers to a series of significant conferences organized by the United Nations aimed at addressing global environmental issues, particularly in the context of sustainable development and climate change. The first of these summits, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, established crucial agreements like Agenda 21 and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which sought to balance economic growth and environmental protection. Subsequent summits, known as Earth Summit +5 and Earth Summit +10, took place in 1997 and 2002, respectively, to review progress on sustainable development and to address ongoing global challenges, including climate change and poverty.
These summits highlighted the necessity of international cooperation among nations with diverse interests and emphasized the importance of integrating environmental considerations into economic planning. The agreements made at these summits, including the Kyoto Protocol, aimed to create binding commitments for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Earth Summits have played a pivotal role in shaping international environmental policy and fostering dialogue on sustainability, though they have also faced criticism for slow progress in addressing urgent environmental challenges. The ongoing discussions and commitments made at these summits continue to influence global efforts to combat climate change and promote a sustainable future for all.
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Earth Summit
The Earth Summits held by the United Nations have presented forums for the creation and maintenance of important international treaties and agreements relating to climate change. They bring with them both the strengths and the weaknesses of the United Nations as a body for organizing international cooperation among nations with very different interests and agendas.
Background
During the twenty years following the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, in Stockholm, Sweden, the global environment continued to deteriorate, as the and natural resources were depleted, while global warming and pollution increased. Importantly, little had been done to integrate environmental issues with economics and development. In 1983, Gro Harlem Brundtland of Norway, head of the World Commission on Environment and Development, put forth a report that defined as “the growth of population, industry, and agriculture occurring in a manner that allows the current generation to fulfill its own needs without jeopardizing those of future generations.” A sustainable way of life was said to depend on “equitable economic growth, of natural resources, and the environment,” in addition to social development.
As a result of the Brundtland Report, the United Nations requested that a conference be convened that focused equally on the environment and development. The First Earth Summit (formally, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, or UNCED) was held in 1992. It served as the foundation for UN activities to coordinate sustainable development and resist global climate change. Two subsequent summits, Earth Summit +5 and Earth Summit +10, functioned as reviews of the progress made since UNCED after five and ten years, respectively.
The First Earth Summit
Held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from June 3 to 14, 1992, UNCED set out to provide a basis for global collaboration between developed and so as to bolster socioeconomic development and halt the deterioration of the planet’s environment. Some 108 participating countries adopted five significant agreements with the aim of improving the environment and redefining the traditional concept of development to one that included sustainability.
Agenda 21 was the sole product of UNCED that covered all aspects of sustainable development, from goals and responsibilities to financing. It included proposals for social and economic action, such as fighting poverty and balancing production with consumption, while integrating environmental and developmental concerns. The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development was a statement of principles in support of Agenda 21, designed to guide nations in their efforts to protect the environment. It proclaimed that humans are entitled to live in harmony with nature via sustainable development, and that reducing global disparities and eradicating poverty are essential for such development. The Rio Declaration also emphasized the importance of strengthening the role of women, youth, farmers, and indigenous peoples in contemporary society.
The Statement of Forest Principles described the principles that underlie the sustainable management of forests. The Convention on focused on sustaining and conserving the plethora of species inhabiting the planet. Finally, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), a nonbinding treaty on the environment, was ratified on June 12, 1992, by 154 countries with the intent of stabilizing their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at 1990 levels by 2000. The principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities” for developed and developing countries was agreed upon, with the developed countries bearing the greater burden of accountability.
Earth Summit +5
From June 23 to 27, 1997, delegates from 165 nations, including over 53 heads of state, attended a special session of the UN General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York City to “review and appraise” the implementation of Agenda 21 and to assess whether there had been global progress toward sustainable development. The participants of Earth Summit +5 determined that the global environment had deteriorated since UNCED, concluding that while some progress had been achieved in forestalling climate change and the loss of forests and freshwater, global poverty continued its downward spiral, and there were few commitments from the global community to reduce GHG emissions and help fund sustainable development. The north-south divide between developed and developing nations was seen as largely to blame for these problems.
Earth Summit +10
Earth Summit +10 was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from August 26 to September 4, 2002, ten years after UNCED, in order to explore the progress made in promoting sustainable development. Known as the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), the meeting gathered leaders from the business sector, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and other concerned groups with the goal of enhancing the quality of life for all humankind and conserving Earth’s natural resources. During Earth Summit +10, a number of parallel activities were simultaneously held by independent organizations and groups that believed that agreements reached by WSSD were full of good intentions concerning access to potable water, biodiversity, and fishing resources but were devoid of objectives for promoting renewable energies and lacking specific commitments for funding. These groups echoed similar concerns expressed following Earth Summit +5. Some believe that the most positive outcome of Earth Summit +10 was the commitment garnered from several governments to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
Significance for Climate Change
The First Earth Summit, UNCED, set the tone for the two Earth Summits that followed by emphasizing as vital for environmental progress in the fight to contain climate change and forestall global warming. In addition, UNCED produced the most important treaty for achieving this goal, the UNFCCC, with a goal of stabilizing GHG emissions at a level that might prevent disruption of the Earth’s climate. Originally a legally nonbinding document, because it set no mandatory limits on GHG emissions, the treaty included provisions for updates called “protocols,” the best known being the Kyoto Protocol, which established specific, enforceable limits on GHG emissions. Parties to the UNFCCC were asked to adopt legally binding targets for developed countries.
The UNFCCC created a “national GHG inventory” to keep track of GHG emissions and their removal from the atmosphere. It was ratified by the United States in October 1992, when it was opened for signing. While the UNFCCC was ratified by 166 countries, few developed countries met the goal of reducing GHG emissions to 1990 levels by 2000. However, since the UNFCCC entered into force in 1994, the parties to the treaty have been meeting yearly at the Conferences of the Parties (COP) in order to evaluate their progress and to establish and implement legal obligations for developed nations to decrease their GHG emissions under the terms of the Kyoto Protocol.
By the 2020s, the Earth Summits and the two major international conventions they generated, the Kyoto Protocols and the Paris Agreement, had several notable achievements. Foremost was the general acceptance of global climate change as an existential threat. By this decade, most nations had become signatories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This consensus has had its challenges, nonetheless. For example, the United States, under the presidential administration of Donald J. Trump, withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement in 2017. The United States recommitted to this accord in 2021.
In November 2022, the Twenty-Seventh Conference of the Parties (COP27) was conducted in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Participating nations remained committed to the objective of preventing a 1.5-degree Celsius rise in global temperatures above pre-industrial levels. Whether this goal is achievable under current global efforts remains in question. For this to occur, the projections are that nations would need to achieve a 43 percent reduction in greenhouse emissions by 2030 as compared to 2019. Because this objective was tenuous, forums such as COP27 also concerned themselves with promoting the need for expanded reductionist efforts.
COP28 was held in late 2023 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The event was the largest of its kind, with more than 150 heads of state and 85,000 participants in attendance. COP28 marked the end of the first "global stocktake" under the Paris Agreement. It showed that world governments' progress in addressing climate change was too slow in all relevant categories. COP28 urged nations to turn away from fossil fuels in favor of low-emission, renewable energy sources to help slow the potentially catastrophic effects of climate change.
Key Concepts
- greenhouse gases (GHGs): gases that trap heat in the atmosphere, preventing it from escaping into space and increasing the temperature of the planet
- Kyoto Protocol: a treaty that established specific and legally binding limits on GHG emissions for the global community, ratified by 182 nations
- sustainable development: the growth of population, industry, and agriculture in a fashion that does not deplete global resources
- U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC): the agreement underlying the Kyoto Protocol and all other subsequent U.N. agreements relating to climate change
Bibliography
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