ABSTRACT

The United Nations environmental machinery has grown dramatically in the last several decades. It now consists of a program, a forum, and a large number of activities and goals within the organization. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was intended to play a catalytic role, coordinating the environmental activities of other UN agencies. One of the major ways that the United Nations works toward the development of international institutions for the protection of the global environment is by holding major international conferences to discuss emerging environmental issues. The conference also led to the creation of the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development and supported the development of Sustainable Development Goals to replace the Millennium Development Goals. The focus of the Rio conference was the relationship between environment and development, motivated in part by the 1987 publication of Our Common Future, the report of the United Nations Commission on Environment and Development.