The World Summit on Sustainable Development 2002, took place in South Africa, from 26 August to 4 September 2002. It was convened to discuss
ustainable developmentorganizations, 10 years after the first
Earth Summit
The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio Conference or the Earth Summit (Portuguese: ECO92), was a major United Nations conference held in Rio de Janeiro from June 3 to June 14, 1992.
Earth Su ...
in Rio de Janeiro. (It was therefore also informally nicknamed "Rio+10".)
Declarations
The
Johannesburg Declaration was the main outcome of the Summit; however, there were several other international agreements.
It laid out the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation as an action plan.
Agreements
Johannesburg, 27 August: agreement was made to restore the world's depleted fisheries for 2015. It was agreed to by negotiators at the World Summit.
Instead of new agreements between governments, the Earth Summit was organized mostly around almost 300 "partnership initiatives" known as
Type II, as opposed to Type I Partnerships which are the more classic outcome of international treaties. These were to be the key means to achieve the
Millennium Development Goals
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were eight international development goals for the year 2015 that had been established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millenn ...
. These are kept in a database of Partnerships for Sustainable Development.
U.S. participation
The absence of the United States rendered the summit partially impotent.
George W. Bush boycotted the summit and did not attend. Except for a brief appearance by
Colin Powell, who hurriedly addressed the closing stages of the conference while his airplane taxied on the runway of Johannesburg International, the US government did not send a delegation, earning Bush praise in a letter from conservative organizations such as
Americans for Tax Reform
Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) is a politically conservative U.S. advocacy group whose stated goal is "a system in which taxes are simpler, flatter, more visible, and lower than they are today." According to ATR, "The government's power to contro ...
,
American Enterprise Institute
The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, known simply as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), is a center-right Washington, D.C.–based think tank that researches government, politics, economics, and social welfare. A ...
, and
Competitive Enterprise Institute
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) is a non-profit libertarian think tank founded by the political writer Fred L. Smith Jr. on March 9, 1984, in Washington, D.C., to advance principles of limited government, free enterprise, and individ ...
.
History
The United Nations
Conference on the Human Environment, was first held in
Stockholm, Sweden, in June 1972, and marked the emergence of international environmental law. The Declaration on the Human Environment also known as the Stockholm Declaration set out the principles for various international environmental issues, including human rights, natural resource management, pollution prevention and the relationship between the environment and development. The conference also led to the creation of the
United Nations Environment Programme
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the United Nations Conference on th ...
.
The
Brundtland Commission
The Brundtland Commission, formerly the World Commission on Environment and Development, was a sub-organization of the United Nations (UN) that aimed to unite countries in pursuit of sustainable development. It was founded in 1983 when Javier Pé ...
set up by
Gro Harlem Brundtland
Gro Brundtland (; born Gro Harlem, 20 April 1939) is a Norwegian politician ( Arbeiderpartiet), who served three terms as the 29th prime minister of Norway (1981, 1986–89, and 1990–96) and as the director-general of the World Health Organizat ...
, the pioneer of
sustainable development, provided the momentum for first
Earth Summit
The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio Conference or the Earth Summit (Portuguese: ECO92), was a major United Nations conference held in Rio de Janeiro from June 3 to June 14, 1992.
Earth Su ...
1992 – the United Nations Conference on Environmental Development (UNCED), that was also headed by Maurice Strong, who had been a prominent member of the Brundtland Commission – and also for
Agenda 21
Agenda 21 is a non-binding action plan of the United Nations with regard to sustainable development. It is a product of the Earth Summit (UN Conference on Environment and Development) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. It is an action age ...
.
South Africa's first
National Conference on Environment and Development entitled, "Ecologise Politics, Politicise Ecology" was held at the
University of the Western Cape
The University of the Western Cape (UWC) is a public research university in Bellville, near Cape Town, South Africa. The university was established in 1959 by the South African government as a university for Coloured people only. Other un ...
in conjunction with the
Cape Town Ecology Group and the Western Cape Branch of the
World Conference on Religion and Peace in 1991. Prominent persons involved in this conference were
Ebrahim Rasool
Ebrahim Rasool (born 15 July 1962) is a South African politician and diplomat who served as the South African Ambassador to the United States from 2010 to 2015, as a Member of the National Assembly from 2009 to 2010, and as the 5th Premier of th ...
,
Cheryl Carolus
Cheryl Carolus (born 27 May 1958) is a South African politician. She was born in Silvertown, on the Cape Flats, Cape Town. Carolus became involved in politics while still at school and became an activist after joining the United Democratic Fro ...
, Faried Esack, and Julia Martin.
The initial informal discussions on a possible new Summit in 2002 were held in February 1998 and hosted by Derek Osborn who co-chaired the preparatory meetings for Rio+5 and
Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future
Stakeholder may refer to:
*Stakeholder (corporate), a group, corporate, organization, member, or system that affects or can be affected by an organization's actions
*Project stakeholder, a person, group, or organization with an interest in a proje ...
. A set of 10 governments started working informally to start putting together the possible agenda for a Summit. the non-papers produced in 1998 and 1999 ensured that when the UN Commission met in 2000 it could agree to host another Summit in 2002.
See also
*
Agenda 21
Agenda 21 is a non-binding action plan of the United Nations with regard to sustainable development. It is a product of the Earth Summit (UN Conference on Environment and Development) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. It is an action age ...
*
Energy development
*
Global Map
*
Green energy
Energy is sustainable if it "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". Most definitions of sustainable energy include considerations of environmental aspects such as greenh ...
*
Sustainability
*
United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development
The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), also known as Rio 2012, Rio+20 (), or Earth Summit 2012 was the third international conference on sustainable development aimed at reconciling the economic and environmental goals ...
, the follow-up conference in 2012
*
United Nations Environment Programme
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the United Nations Conference on th ...
*
United Nations Human Settlements Programme
The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is the United Nations programme for human settlements and sustainable urban development. It was established in 1977 as an outcome of the first United Nations Conference on Human Settlem ...
References
External links
Earth Summit 2002Johannesburg SummitConstitution of the Conference
{{Authority control
International sustainable development
United Nations conferences on the environment
Diplomatic conferences in South Africa
21st-century diplomatic conferences
2002 in South Africa
2002 in international relations
2002 in the environment
Environmental conferences
2000s in Johannesburg
August 2002 events in South Africa
September 2002 events in South Africa
South Africa and the United Nations