Backgrounder: World Summit on Sustainable Development

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, August 25, 2002

Backgrounder: World Summit on Sustainable Development

The World Summit on Sustainable Development, due to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from Aug. 26 to Sept. 4, is a follow-up to the 1992 Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

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The World Summit on Sustainable Development, due to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from Aug. 26 to Sept. 4, is a follow-up to the 1992 Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

It will focus on building commitment at the highest levels of government and society for actions to implement the Agenda 21, a comprehensive plan for achieving sustainable development adopted at the 1992 summit.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has recommended the Johannesburg summit focus on five key areas: water, energy, health,agriculture and biodiversity.

Sustainable development has been defined as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability offuture generations to meet their own needs."

It calls for improving the quality of life for all the world's people without increasing the use of natural resources beyond the earth's carrying capacity.

To build a truly sustainable way of life requires the integration of action in three key areas: economic growth and equity; conserving natural resources and environment, and social development.

The main objective of the summit is to reinvigorate political commitment to sustainable development.

It is expected to end with a clear statement from world leadersin the form of a "Johannesburg Declaration", reaffirming their commitment to work towards sustainable development.

Also, a negotiated implementation plan will outline priority actions needed for sustainable development.

In addition, governments, civil society and business are being encouraged to bring forward partnership initiatives that will address specific problems and lead to measurable results that willimprove people's lives around the world.

Billed as the biggest UN convention ever held, the summit promises to be one of the largest and the most important international meetings ever held in the integration of economic, environmental and social decision-making.

An estimated 60,000 participants, including over 100 heads of state, 6,000 government delegates and 5,000 journalists are expected to come to Johannesburg during the summit.

The event will also bring together tens of thousands of representatives of the stakeholders identified in the Agenda 21, which include business and industry; women; children and youth; indigenous people; local authorities; workers and their trade unions; NGOs; scientific and technological communities and farmers.

The inter-governmental agenda will form the core of the summit.

In addition, the views of the Major Groups listed above will beintegrated into the summit deliberations through a multi-stakeholder dialogue process. Other events will be held both before and during the summit.

Issues for the summit's core agenda will be agreed upon througha series of national, regional and global preparatory meetings with governments and other organizations.

BRIEF HISTORY

The environment has always been critical to life but concerns over the balance between human life and the environment assumed international dimensions only during the 1950s.

In 1972, with the convening of the UN Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm, environment became an internationalissue.

The year of 1992 was a landmark on the road to promoting sustainable development. In June of that year, over 10,000 people,including 108 heads of state and government, gathered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to attend the UN Conference on Environment and Development, also known as the Earth Summit.

At the conference, governments adopted the Agenda 21 -- a global action plan for sustainable development, the Rio Declaration and a Statement of Forest Principles. The Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity were opened for signature.

In June 1997, at the "Earth Summit+5" special session of the UNGeneral Assembly, governments agreed on a program of action for further implementation of Agenda 21.

In December 2000, the UN General Assembly decided to hold a World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, to reinvigorate at the highest political level the global commitment to sustainable development agreed ten years ago at the Rio Summit.

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