ABSTRACT
One of the most pervasive features of UNCED discussions, documents, meetings and Summits is the attention given to the environmental dimensions of the division between the North and the South, between the rich and the poor, between the high-consumption societies of the industrialized world and those in the Third World struggling to sustain their basic livelihoods. The Brundtland Report and the related UNCED process acknowledged that both the positive and the negative consequences of industrialization and agricultural modernization, when viewed from a global perspective, are inequitably distributed. In addition, the consequences of this type of development for global environmental change, including climate change and biodiversity loss, are uneven in their impact.
