Read the passage and answer the questions:
Environmental concerns have a long history; awareness of environmental consequences of economic growth acquired an increasingly political character from 1960s onwards. The Club of Rome, a global think tank, published a book of 1972 entitled Limits to Growth, dramatising the potential depletion of Earth’s resources against backdrop of rapidly growing world population. International agencies, including United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), began holding international conferences and promoting detailed studies to get a more coordinated and effective response to environmental problems. Since then, environment has emerged as a significant issue of global politics. The growing focus on environmental issues within arena of global politics was firmly consolidated at United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, of June 1992. This was also called Earth Summit. The summit revealed that countries of First World, generally referred to as ‘global North’, were pursuing a different environmental agenda than poor and developing countries of Third World, called ‘global South’. Whereas Northern states were concerned with ozone depletion and global warming, Southern states were anxious to address relationship between economic development and environmental management.
Which of the following events led to the firm consolidation of environmental issues with global politics?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (1992)
Option (1) Formation of United Nations Environment Programme. — Incorrect. UNEP held conferences and promoted studies, but the passage says the focus was firmly consolidated at the 1992 Conference.
Option (2) Publication of “Limits to Growth” — Incorrect. The 1972 book dramatised resource depletion; it did not consolidate environmental issues in global politics.
Option (3) Growth of World Population in 1960 — Incorrect. Population growth is only the backdrop of Limits to Growth; it is a trend, not an event that brought environmental issues into global politics.
Option (4) United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (1992) — Correct. The growing focus on environmental issues in global politics was firmly consolidated at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, also called the Earth Summit.
NCERT: Contemporary World Politics — Chapter 6: Environment and Natural Resources (2025-26)
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