ABSTRACT
The UN General Assembly paved the way for the first significant collective initiative, namely, UNCHE 1972 in Stockholm which emphasized that the explosion in technological and scientific advancements had profound impacts on the man and environment relationship and, on ecosystem quality. The conference was supposed to arouse a consciousness about the problems of the human environment and bring the environment to the center-stage on the global agenda. The UNEP was set up to act as a focal point for the UN system. After ten years of UNCHE, the Governing Council of UNEP adopted the Nairobi Declaration and called for renewed international efforts and measures to be discharged with historic collective and individual responsibility. It concluded with the formation of WCED that produced a report ‘Our Common Future’ where the concept of sustainable development was introduced. With continuing deterioration of environment, the General Assembly called for the UNCED in 1992, to reaffirm its highest level of commitment to environmental protection and brought environment and development to the forefront on the global stage along with a new consensus between the developed and developing countries. In Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, experts opined that our activities are compromising the earth’s capacity to sustain current and future generations. After two years of Millennium Summit, the WSSD was held in Johannesburg as the second review of Rio 1992 implementation following the first review in 1997 Rio+5. The conditions appeared not to show much improvement in the fragility of earth’s environment. The Rio+20 in 2012 failed to produce any breakthrough agreements and commitments but provided a global platform to shed light on pressing issues such as poverty reduction and sustainable development. Several meetings, conferences, debates, and discussions have taken place since 1972 but the state of our planet has hardly improved.
