The United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) was a body under the
UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) tasked with overseeing the outcomes of the 1992
United Nations Conference on Environment and Development/
Earth Summit
The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio de Janeiro Conference or the Earth Summit (Portuguese: ECO92, Cúpula da Terra), was a major United Nations conference held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 ...
. It was replaced in 2013 by the
High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, which meets both under the
General Assembly every four years and the
ECOSOC in other years.
The CSD was established in December 1992 by
General Assembly Resolutio
A/RES/47/191as a functional commission of the UN
Economic and Social Council, implementing a recommendation i
Chapter 38of
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 ag ...
, the landmark global agreement reached at the June 1992
United Nations Conference on Environment and Development/
Earth Summit
The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio de Janeiro Conference or the Earth Summit (Portuguese: ECO92, Cúpula da Terra), was a major United Nations conference held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 ...
held in
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...
, Brazil.
CSD 1
CSD 1, the first or "Organizational" session of the CSD, was held in New York in June 1993. The Organizational Session focused on a broad range of organizational and administrative issues, reflected in topics of the commission's document
*Budget implications of draft decisions
*Establishing a provisional agenda and a multi-year programme of work
*National reporting on implementation of
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 ag ...
*Information exchange:
UN System and donors
*
UNCED follow-up: international organizations and UN coordination
*Coordination of development data
*Progress in environmentally sound
technology transfer
Technology transfer (TT), also called transfer of technology (TOT), is the process of transferring (disseminating) technology from the person or organization that owns or holds it to another person or organization, in an attempt to transform invent ...
*Government information on financial commitments
*Urgent and major emergent issues
*
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is an intergovernmental organization within the United Nations Secretariat that promotes the interests of developing countries in world trade. It was established in 1964 by the United Nations General Assembl ...
and Agenda 21 implementation
*
UNEP
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 Declaration of the United Nati ...
and Agenda 21 implementation
*Future work
*Guidelines for national reporting
*Integrating
sustainable development
Sustainable development is an approach to growth and Human development (economics), human development that aims to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.United Nations General ...
into the UN system
CSD 5
In its Fifth Session, the principal focus of the CSD was to prepare for the Five-Year Review of the 1992 Earth Summit, which took the form of th
19th Special Sessionof the General Assembly, held at
UN Headquarters in New York.
CSD 10/
World Summit on Sustainable Development
The World Summit on Sustainable Development 2002, took place in South Africa, from 26 August to 4 September 2002. It was convened to discuss sustainable development organizations, 10 years after the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. (It was t ...
For its Tenth Session the CSD served as th
Preparatory Committeefor th
held in
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...
, South Africa, in December 2002.
''See the full article
World Summit on Sustainable Development
The World Summit on Sustainable Development 2002, took place in South Africa, from 26 August to 4 September 2002. It was convened to discuss sustainable development organizations, 10 years after the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. (It was t ...
''
CSD 12
The Twelfth Session of the CSD is the first substantive session since the
Johannesburg Summit - CSD-11 was an organizational session that focused on establishing priorities and an agenda for the second ten-year cycle of the commission. Text below in "quotes" is from the introductory note from the chair - H.E.
Børge Brende, Norwegian Minister of the Environmen
to a description of the organization of work during CSD-1
:"The first three days of CSD-12 will serve as the preparatory meeting for the ten-year review of the Barbados Programme of Action (BPoA) for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States.
:The bulk of CSD-12 will focus on
water
Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...
,
sanitation
Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and treatment and disposal of human excreta and sewage. Preventing human contact with feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing with soap. Sanitation systems ...
and
human settlements
In geography, statistics and archaeology, a settlement, locality or populated place is a community of people living in a particular place. The complexity of a settlement can range from a minuscule number of dwellings grouped together to th ...
. "The decision of CSD-11 to focus its first Implementation Cycle on Water, Sanitation and Human Settlements bears testimony to the sense of urgency the international community ascribes to these issues."
:"Today, water-borne diseases kill a person every ten seconds, the overwhelming majority children, and roughly one in two Sub-Saharan Africans and three in five South Asians lack adequate sanitation. The total number of people living in slums is close to 930 million and is growing at an accelerated rate."
:"The CSD-12 Review Session will feature a number of “firsts”. Thematic reviews will feature interactive discussions and will be introduced through keynote presentations, panel discussions and moderated debates. Major Group representatives will join Ministers in interactive dialogues during the High-Level Segment."
CSD 16
The chair was H.E.
Francis Nhema,
Zimbabwe's Minister of Environment and Tourism.
CSD 18
The 18th session took place in New York in May 2010, focusing on transport, chemicals,
waste management
Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. This includes the collection, transport, treatment, and disposal of waste, together with monitor ...
,
mining
Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...
, and the ten-year framework of programmes on
sustainable consumption
Sustainable consumption (sometimes abbreviated to "SC") is the use of products and services in ways that minimizes human impact on the environment, impacts on the environment.
Sustainable consumption can be undertaken in such a way that needs are ...
and production patterns (SCP).
CSD 19
The 19th session took place in May 2011, as part of the policy cycle from the previous year. No agreement was reached in the negotiations and they eventually collapsed.
United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development
CSD 20 was suspended from its normal rotation, planned in 2012 because the
General Assembly had resolved to hold the
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 ...
in Rio as the 20th anniversary to the original conference. United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development would focus on two themes:
# Green economy within the context of sustainable development and
poverty eradication.
# Institutional framework for sustainable development.
With the objectives:
# Securing renewed political commitment to sustainable development.
# Assessing the progress and implementation gaps in meeting already agreed commitments.
# Addressing new and emerging challenges.
CSD 20
Member states decided in resolution 67/203 of 21 December 2012 that the CSD would have its last session immediately prior to the convening of the first meeting of the
High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in order to ensure a smooth institutional transition. CSD-20 took place in the morning of 20 September 2013.
References
External links
Commission on Sustainable DevelopmentUN DESA - Division for Sustainable DevelopmentSustainable Development Issues NetworkStakeholder Forum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Commission On Sustainable Development
United Nations Economic and Social Council
International sustainability organizations
United Nations development policy
Organizations established in 1992