Earth Summit

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Earth Summit

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, also known as the Rio Summit, Earth Summit (or, in Portuguese

Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia and Portugal. It is derived from the Latin language spoken by the Romanization Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula around 2000 years ago....
, Eco '92) was a major United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, Social change, human rights and achieving world peace....
conference

Conference

A conference is a meeting of people that "confer" about a topic.*Academic conference, in science and academia, a formal event where researchers present results, workshops, and other activities....
held in Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro , is the second largest city of Brazil and South America, behind S?o Paulo, and the third largest metropolitan area in South America, behind S?o Paulo and Buenos Aires....
from June 3 to June 14, 1992.

Overview
172 governments participated, with 108 sending their heads of state or government.

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Encyclopedia

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, also known as the Rio Summit, Earth Summit (or, in Portuguese

Portuguese language

United Nations

Conference

Rio de Janeiro

Overview

172 governments participated, with 108 sending their heads of state or government. Some 2,400 representatives of non-governmental organization

Non-governmental organization

Non-governmental organization is a term that has become widely accepted for referring to a legally constituted, non-business organization created by natural or legal persons with no participation or representation of any government....
s (NGOs) attended, with 17,000 people at the parallel NGO "Global Forum", who had so-called Consultative Status

Consultative Status

Consultative Status is a phrase whose use can be traced to the founding of the United Nations and is used within the UN community to refer to "Non-governmental organisations in Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council."...
.

The issues addressed included:

systematic scrutiny of patterns of production — particularly the production of toxic components, such as lead in gasoline
Gasoline

File:GasCan.jpgGasoline or petrol is a petroleum-derived liquid mixture, primarily used as fuel in internal combustion engines.It consists mostly of aliphatic hydrocarbons, enhanced with iso-octane or the aromatic hydrocarbons toluene and benzene to increase its octane rating....
, or poisonous waste including radioactive chemicals
alternative sources of energy to replace the use of fossil fuel
Fossil fuel

Fossil fuels or mineral fuels are fossil source fuels, that is, carbon or hydrocarbons found in the earth?s Crust .Fossil fuel range from volatile materials with low carbon:hydrogen ratios like methane, to liquid petroleum to nonvolatile materials composed of almost pure carbon, like anthracite coal....
s which are linked to global climate change
Climate change

Climate change is any long-term significant change in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region over an appropriately significant period of time....
new reliance on public transportation systems in order to reduce vehicle emissions, congestion in cities and the health problems caused by polluted air and smog
the growing scarcity of water
Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....

An important achievement was an agreement on the Climate Change Convention which in turn led to the Kyoto Protocol

Kyoto Protocol

The Kyoto Protocol is a Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , an international environmental treaty produced at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development , informally known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 3–14 June 1992....
. Another was agreement to "not carry out any activities on the lands of indigenous peoples

Indigenous peoples

File:Kaiapos.jpegThe term indigenous peoples or autochthonous peoples can be used to describe any ethnic group of people who inhabit a geographic region with which they have the earliest known historical connection, alongside immigrants which have populated the region and which are greater in number....
that would cause environmental degradation or that would be culturally inappropriate".

The Convention on Biological Diversity

Convention on Biological Diversity

The Convention on Biological Diversity, known informally as the Biodiversity Convention, is an international treaty that was adopted in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992....
was opened for signature at the Earth Summit, and made a start towards redefinition of money supply

Money supply

In economics, money supply, or money stock, is the total amount of money available in an economy at a particular point in time. There are several ways to define "money", but standard measures usually include currency in circulation and demand deposits....
measures that did not inherently encourage destruction of natural ecoregion

Ecoregion

An ecoregion , sometimes called a bioregion, is an ecology and geographically defined area smaller than a "realm" or "ecozone". Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, geographically distinct assemblages of natural community and species....
s and so-called uneconomic growth

Uneconomic growth

Uneconomic growth, in human development theory, welfare economics , and some forms of ecological economics, is economic growth that reflects or creates a decline in the quality of life....
.

Twelve cities were also honoured by the Local Government Honours Award for innovative local environmental programs. These included Sudbury, Ontario in Canada

Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
for its ambitious program to rehabilitate environmental damage from the local mining

Mining

Mining is the extraction of value minerals or other geology materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, vein or seam. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, Sodium chloride and potash....
industry, Austin, Texas

Austin, Texas

Austin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Travis County, Texas. Situated in Central Texas and part of the Southwestern United States, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 16th-largest in the United States....
in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
for its green building

Green building

A sustainable building, or green building is an outcome of a design which focuses on increasing the efficiency of resource use ? energy, water, and materials ? while reducing building impacts on human health and environment during the building's lifecycle, through better siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and remova...
strategy, and Kitakyushu in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
for incorporating an international education and training component into its municipal pollution control program.

The Earth Summit resulted in the following documents:

Rio Declaration on Environment and Development
Rio Declaration on Environment and Development

The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, often shortened to Rio Declaration, was a short document produced at the 1992 United Nations "Conference on Environment and Development" , informally known as the Earth Summit....
Agenda 21
Agenda 21

Agenda 21 is a programme run by the United Nations related to sustainable development. It is a comprehensive blueprint of action to be taken globally, nationally and locally by organizations of the UN, governments, and major groups in every area in which humans impact on the natural environment....
Convention on Biological Diversity
Convention on Biological Diversity

The Convention on Biological Diversity, known informally as the Biodiversity Convention, is an international treaty that was adopted in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992....
Forest Principles
Forest Principles

The Forest Principles is the informal name given to the "Non-Legally Binding Authoritative Statement of Principles for a Global Consensus on the Management, Conservation and Sustainable Development of All Types of Forests," a document produced at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development , informally known as the Earth...
Framework Convention on Climate Change

Both Convention on Biological Diversity and Framework Convention on Climate Change were set as legally binding agreements.

Critics, however, point out that many of the agreements made in Rio have not been realized regarding such fundamental issues as fighting poverty

Poverty

Poverty is the shortage of common things such as food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, all of which determine our quality of life. It may also include the lack of access to opportunities such as education and employment which aid the escape from poverty and/or allow one to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens....
and cleaning up the environment

Natural environment

The natural environment, commonly referred to simply as the environment, is a term that encompasses all life and non-living things occurring nature on Earth or some region thereof....
.

Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD)

CSD has served as the UN high-level forum for sustainable development issues since 1992, when it was established by the UN General Assembly to ensure effective follow-up to the Rio Summit. CSD meets annually at UN Headquarters; its focus themes for 2006/2007 are energy for sustainable development, industrial development, air pollution/atmosphere and climate change

Climate change

Climate change is any long-term significant change in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region over an appropriately significant period of time....
.

Earth Summit

Overview

Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD)

See also

External links