Category Social Sciences

In 1997, a second major environmental conference led by the UN happened in Kyoto, Japan. The plan was to save the environment by reducing the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The UN wanted the industrialized nations to significantly reduce their carbon dioxide emissions.

The Protocol was linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. A protocol is an official procedure or a set of rules that the members are supposed to abide by.

After long and difficult negotiations, the developed countries agreed to reduce their emissions by five per cent from the levels of 1990. However, many environmentalists suggested that the emissions had to be reduced at least by 50 per cent.

Though the plan seemed splendid, it was not successful. The Kyoto Protocol was not a treaty and therefore, it was not mandatory to sign it. Moreover, USA, the world’s largest polluter, refused to accept the Protocol.

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In 1983, the UN General Assembly launched a World Commission on Environment and Development. This Commission was assigned to draft a report about environment and climate change along with strategies for sustainable development.

When the Commission reported back to the General Assembly in 1987, it suggested to organize a major worldwide conference on the environment.

The UN Conference on Environment and Development, also known as the Earth Summit was the result of this. 178 representatives participated in the Summit that was organized in Brazil in 1992. However, no enforcements were made during the summit.

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We already know about the United Nation Environment Programme (UNEP) that came into effect in 1972. Eleven years after that, the UN proposed that development should not exploit the natural resources. This idea of sustainable development then became the key plank of all of UN’s development programmes.

The UN is also working to make the whole world accept the model of sustainable development. It was presented during the Earth Summit that was conducted in Rio de Janeiro in1992.

Agenda 21 of the Earth Summit is an action plan to achieve sustainable development and concerns with individual governments across the world that operates at local, national and global levels.

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‘Perhaps the single most successful international agreement to date has been the Montreal Protocol.’ Kofi Annan was not wrong to say this.

The Montreal Protocol is indeed a success story. The ozone hole in Antarctica is slowly recovering and is expected to reach the 1980 levels between 2050 and 2070.

The Montreal Protocol phases down both the production and use of nearly a hundred harmful chemicals. This is done in several steps. The developed and developing countries follow a different timetable in the process.

Without this treaty, ozone layer depletion would have increased at least by ten times by 2050 in comparison with the current levels. This treaty also aids the global climate system.

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By the 1990, people around the world became aware of the problem of the ozone layer. Human activity has damaged the ozone layer that protects us from the harmful UV radiations. The UN looked into this problem and in response, designed the Montreal Protocol.

The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone layer is an international treaty to protect the ozone layer. The treaty asked nations to phase out the production of many substances that would deplete the ozone layer.

The UN got the major industrialized nations to sign the treaty. The treaty was adopted in September, 1987 and came into force in September, 1989.

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The UN has faced and mediated many threats to the world including nuclear war. The organisation is now trying hard to deal with something that is more complex and worrying. It is trying to deal with something that has put all living creatures to the risk of mass destruction and that is climate change.

We have been warned that human activity is rapidly changing the Earth and the environment since the mid-1980s. Pure water and air has increasingly become a rarity.

The ozone layer has been damaged due to the release of harmful substances like CFCs from appliances like air conditioners and refrigerators. The waste from factories and households has polluted the air, water and soil.

Millions of acres of rainforests have been irreplaceably cut down. This situation has forced the UN into actions against climate change.

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