The Global Environmental Summits

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The Global Environmental Summits
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Group Discussion

• Political factors that shaped the summit? Why did
  it take place?
• Main characteristics
• actors
• agendas
• conflicts
• power relations
• outcomes
• Significance (if any) for environmental
  cooperation and IR
• Main differences/similarities compared to the
  other two summits

3
UN Conference on the Human Environment

• Stockholm 1972
• Context Cold War
• Rising environmental concern in the
  industrialized west
• Environmental problems by product of wealth and
  industrialization. Suspicion by developing
  countries.
• Narrowly defined problems of air and water
  pollution (example acid rain)
• 134 NGOs from industrialized countries

4
UN Conference on Environment and Development

• Post Cold War peace
• Sustainable development concept launched
• Developing countries concerns on the agenda
  (sort of)
• Growth in scientific understanding
• 1,400 official NGO participants
• National environmental bureaucracies
• Agenda 21
• Biodiversity Convention
• UN Framework Convention of Climate Change
  (UNFCC)
• Global Environmental Facility
• Forest Principles

5
World Summit on Sustainable Development

• Johannesburg 2002
• Context post 9/11, rise of unilateralism
• Unprecedented participation by non-state actors.
• Focus on linkages between environment and
  globalization (trade, finance, agriculture)
• No strong leadership (maybe the EU?)
• Pessimism about multilateral cooperation. Why?
• Plan of implementation

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Common trends

• Clash of interests between developed and
  developing countries
• Growth in number of environmental treaties
• But persistence of alarming trends (consumption,
  water, agriculture, poverty, population)
• Some success stories (LRTAP, Montreal Protocol,
  Biosafety Protocol)

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Trends in NGO role in summits
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Was Joburg a failure?World Summit of Shameful
Deals
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Johannesburg Type II Outcomes

• What are they?
• voluntary arrangement between public and
  private actors to address sustainable development
  issues (education, agriculture, biodiversity,
  etc).
• Examples?
• -Amazon regional protection area
• (Brazil, GEF, WWF, WB) 500, 000 sq. miles
  under federal protection, largest forest
  protection plan.
• -Cooperation between 15 biologically richest
  countries to achieve reduction of biodiversity
  loss.