1
ESPM 169 Lecture, September 5, 2002
- Group Exercise:
"The ExCOP reviewed a Non-Paper in a Vienna Setting, while arguing about the route to AIA and whether LMO-FFPs is too broad."
2. Is a treaty just a piece of paper?
- US (current) cf. European view of international governance
3. Stockholm and Rio
To date, three "big events" dominate GEP:
1972: UN Conference on the Human Environment, Stockholm - environment
1992: UNCED - Rio de Janeiro - environment and development
2002: WSSD - sustainable development
Stockholm:
important because it set a precedent for years to come - in particular the conference/multilateral mode of negotiation and meeting
sponsored by the UN
lead to creation of UNEP (under leadership of Maurice Strong)
Yielded the following unprecedented result:
114 nations (USSR and Eastern Europe voluntarily absent) agreed on a declaration of principles and plan of action on 4 issues:
human settlement
natural resources
pollution
conflict/balance between environment and development
Overall: vague, and long on shoulds, short on hows, but still:
- reflected substantial commitment by member countries
- marked, as some argue, a shift away from states towards peoples, international agencies
- introduced concept of "merged", or "collective" sovereignty - stronger than cooperation
- institutional innovations - UNEP - Nairobi
- set pattern for years to come:
- multilateral negotiations
- C-P method
- UNEP sponsorship
Then, a long road to UNCED in Rio 1992 - The Earth Summit
- gradual widening of interest
- greater realization of vulnerability
- OPEC, Chernobyl, hole in ozone layer, increasingly compelling evidence of CC
- tremendous activist role from UNEP: hosting scientific meetings, disseminating information
- growth in NGOs: 134 at Stockholm - 1400 at Rio
- growth in environmental agreements
June 1992 Earth Summit
December 1989: UN General Assembly decided to call an "Earth Summit"
- negotiations began on FCCC and CBD to have them ready for signature at the Convention
- also desertification (led to convention), set of forest principles
- Agenda 21 on Sustainability: an action plan
- Rio Declaration
At Rio: 150 states present, including 135 heads of state; 45,000 people, reps from 1500 NGOs
- parallel conference of NGOs
US a highly reluctant participant - presidential election that year
Impact of Rio: ambiguous but overall a positive
Rio, 1992 - Johannesburg, 2002
- lot of incremental work, some setbacks, some moves forward
- tremendous amount of activity: meetings all the time
- policy agenda dominated by N-S relations, climate change - also the emergence of trade agreements and regional integration - EU, NAFTA, WTO
- growing concern over equity issues
Kyoto, 1997:
most recent big meeting on CC, with lots at stake - need to draw up a protocol under the UN FCCC
- big divisions between N and S: India, China, Brazil
-US very divided between scientific and economic communities
4. Johannesburg: Rio + 10 - context of meeting
-not too great: US lack of interest, lack of progress in implementing early goals
-merging of various parts of the international community