ABSTRACT
The Rio de Janeiro UN Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 was the first in a decade of United Nations mega-summits. The UN environment summit was the first attempt to create international norms and mechanisms for global governance in a globalising world. The UN system of accreditation, preparatory conferences, consultations and so on conferred legitimacy on the bureaucratic and professional NGOs who engaged in the process, while those who stayed outside the system and protested were marginalised, delegitimised and even criminalised. The rise of the anti-globalisation movement has been an extremely important element in changing the discourse on globalisation by making the processes, interests and institutions driving neoliberal globalisation visible. The outcomes of Rio were ambitious, extensive and in many respects positive. In the Rio framework, economic growth was seen as an essential component of sustainable development but, over time, environmental sustainability has been reduced to profit sustainability.
