International initiatives for environmental protection

 There various global initiatives for environmental protection among these some important ones have been described below:

The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (also known as the Stockholm Conference) was an international conference convened under United Nations auspices held in Stockholm, Sweden from June 5-16, 1972. It was the UN’s first major conference on international environmental issues, and marked a turning point in the development of international environmental politics.

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio Summit, Rio Conference, Earth Summit (Portuguese: Eco ‘92) was a major United Nations conference held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 June to 14 June 1992. 

172 governments participated, with 108 sending their heads of state or government. Some 2,400 representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) attended, with 17,000 people at the parallel NGO “Global Forum”, who had Consultative Status.

The issues addressed included:

● Systematic scrutiny of patterns of production – particularly the production of toxic components, such as lead in gasoline, or poisonous waste including radioactive chemicals.

● Alternative sources of energy to replace the use of fossil fuels which are linked to global climate change.

● 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. 

The Earth Summit resulted in the following documents:

● Rio Declaration on Environment and Development

● Agenda 21

● Convention on Biological Diversity

● Forest Principles

● Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). 

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 and cleaning up the environment.

The Green Cross International was founded to build upon the work of the Summit.

At the World Summit for Social Development, Governments reached a new consensus on the need to put people at the centre of development. The Social Summit was the largest gathering ever of world leaders at that time. It pledged to eradicate poverty, create full employment and foster social integration.

At the end of the Summit, Governments adopted the Copenhagen Declaration, the Ten Commitments and the Programme of Action of the World Social Summit are listed below

● Create an economic, political, social, cultural and legal environment that will enable people to achieve social development;

● Eradicate absolute poverty by a target date to be set by each country;

● Support full employment as a basic policy goal;

● Promote social integration based on the enhancement and protection of all human rights;

● Achieve equality and equity between women and men;

● Attain universal and equitable access to education and primary health care;

● Accelerate the development of Africa and the least developed countries;

● Ensure that structural adjustment programmes include social development goals;

● Increase resources allocated to social development;

● Strengthen cooperation for social development through the UN. 

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