Chapter 1 - Preamble

Section 1 - Social & Economic Dimensions

Section 2 - Conservation and Management of Resources
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22

Section 3 - Strengthening the Role of Major Groups

Section 4 - Means of Implementation

Complete text of Agenda 21: Chapter 9
Chapter 9: Protecting the Atmosphere

Our atmosphere is under increasing pressure from greenhouse gases that threaten to change the climate and from chemicals that reduce the ozone layer. Other pollutants, including those that cause acid rain, often travel long distances through the atmosphere to cause damage on land and water. In many parts of the world, these harmful substances often cross national borders before they land.

Energy use is a major source of emissions. The use of energy is essential to economic and social development and improved quality of life. Much of the world’s energy, however, is produced and consumed in ways that cannot be sustained if overall quantities increase substantially. Controlling emissions will depend on greater efficiency in energy production, transmission, distribution and consumption, and on creating environmentally sound energy systems.

At the same time, there is a need for equity and enough energy to meet increasing consumption in developing countries. Consideration is also needed for countries that are highly dependent on the export or consumption of fossil fuels, or use a lot of energy in their industries. Some countries do not have easy alternatives to fossil fuels.

Governments need to:

• Develop more precise ways of predicting levels of atmospheric pollutants and greenhouse gas concentrations that would cause dangerous interference with the climate system and the environment as a whole.
• Modernize existing power systems to gain energy efficiency, and develop new and renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, hydro, biomass, geothermal, ocean, animal and human power.
• Help people learn how to develop and use more efficient and less polluting forms of energy.
• Coordinate regional energy plans so that environmentally sound forms of energy can be produced and distributed efficiently.
• Promote environmental assessment and other ways of making decisions that integrate energy, environment and economic policies in a sustainable manner.
• Develop energy efficiency labeling programmes for consumers.

Transportation is essential for economic and social development, and the need will undoubtedly increase, but this activity is also a source of atmospheric emissions.

Governments should:

• Promote national energy efficiency and emission standards, and increase public awareness of environmentally sound energy systems.
• Develop efficient, cost-effective, less polluting and safer rural and urban mass transit, along with environmentally sound road networks.
• Encourage forms of transportation that minimize emissions and harmful effects on the environment.
• Plan urban and regional settlements to reduce the environmental impacts of transport.

Industry provides goods, services and jobs, but the industrial use of resources and materials causes atmospheric emissions. Industry needs to make more efficient use of materials and resources, install pollution controls, replace chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other ozone-depleting substances with safer substitutes, and reduce wastes. There are environmental and economic benefits from increasing efficiency and waste reduction.

Governments should:

• Use administrative and economic measures that encourage industry to develop safer, cleaner and more efficient technologies.
• Help transfer such technologies to developing countries.
• Use environmental impact assessments to foster sustainable industrial development.

Certain uses of the land and seas can decrease the amount of plant material available to take carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, out of the air. Governments should promote the sustainable management and conservation of natural greenhouse gases sinks and reservoirs, including forests and salt-water ecosystems.

The planet’s stratospheric ozone layer continues to decline because of releases of CFCs, halons and other substances containing reactive chlorine and bromine. Governments should put into force international agreements calling for reductions in the use of ozone-depleting substances. It is necessary to develop safe substitutes for these chemicals, and to see that they are made available to developing as well as developed countries.

Based on research on the effects of more ultraviolet radiation reaching the Earth’s surface, governments should consider measures to protect human health, agriculture and life in the seas.

Governments should create or strengthen regional agreements, such as the 1979 Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution, in order to reduce flows of pollutants that harm human health and forests, and acidify lakes and rivers. Countries should also have early-warning systems and responses for air pollution coming from industrial accidents, natural disasters or the destruction of natural resources.

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