THE EARTH SUMMIT: INTERROGATING THE ROLE OF THE UNITED NATIONS IN ENVIRONMENTAL DIPLOMACY

The founders of the United Nations (UN) did not give express consideration to environmental protection. However, the emergence of environmental issues the late 1960s illustrated the UN's system's evolution as a multilateral forum for global policy making. Concerns about the consequences of economic activities on environment and human health began to grow. This development was promoted by some scholarships such as Rachel Carson's 'Silent Spring', Garret Hardin's 'Tragedy of the Common', among others. Photographs of the Earth from space taken by APOLLO II astronauts provided a new image of the planet earth as a single ecosystem and a object of great beauty. This scenario coupled with the promptings of United Nations Economic and Social Council (UNESCO) scientists and experts informed the first UN international conferences specifically on environmental matters in Stockholm in 1972 and in Rio in 1992. This paper examines the role of the United Nations in the protection of the environment for sustainable development. Using the Rio Earth Summit as an area of study, the paper argues that the Rio Earth Summit (United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development) was the largest of the UN sponsored international conference both in the number of participants and in the scope of the agenda. The paper, in its submission, posits that the major outcomes of the Rio Summit were the declaration of twenty seven international principles on environment, adoption of two international conventions on environment, establishment of regional and sub-regional commissions for capacity building for sustainable development, an express commitment by developed states to commit 0.7% of their gross national product (GNP) to protect the environment and a pledge of six hundred and seven dollars, million for the implementation of the Rio Declaration or Programme of action and other international regimes on environment and sustainable development.