The modern system of international environmental management dates to the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm. Several international environmental agreements, in particular some on marine pollution, predate the Stockholm Conference but this first major environmental event triggered a flurry of activity at national and international levels, as countries and other international organizations responded to the emerging challenges of environmental management at all levels. The Stockholm Conference also pioneered new forms of public participation in a United Nations conference, establishing links between the formal process and the informal parallel NGO process.

The Stockholm Conference led to the establishment of the United Nations Environment Programme, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. UNEP was to act as a catalyst for the environment in the United Nations system, but its means were modest compared with the dimensions of its task. Over the years, however, UNEP has launched a significant number of international agreements, and today has administrative responsibility for seven major conventions as well as many regional agreements. It has also acted as the environmental conscience of the United Nations system.

It soon became obvious that the Stockholm Conference's focus on the environment without due concern for development was not enough for the long-term advancement of the international environmental agenda. In 1985 the United Nations established the World Commission on Environment and Development, which issued its report, Our common future, in 1987. This report first articulated the concept of sustainable development systematically (see Box 2-1). This in turn became the basis for a major review of all international environmental activities in the United Nations through the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, held in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. UNCED articulated an ambitious program of sustainable development, contained in the final Conference document, known as Agenda 21. The Rio Conference helped establish the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and reaffirmed the role of the Global Environment Facility, thus widening the organizational basis for the environment and sustainable development within the United Nations system. UNCED was the fulcrum on which states were able to conclude the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity, after short and very intense negotiations. UNCED also pioneered innovative ways for the public to participate in intergovernmental processes.

2.2 Principles