Read the passage and answer the questions:
Environmental Concerns in Global Politics
Although environmental concerns have a long history, awareness of the environmental consequences of economic growth acquired an increasingly political character from the 1960s onwards. The Club of Rome, a global think tank, published a book in 1972 entitled Limits to Growth, dramatising the potential depletion of the Earth’s resources against the backdrop of rapidly growing world population. International agencies, including the 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, the environment has emerged as a significant issue of global politics. The growing focus on environmental issues within the arena of global politics was firmly consolidated at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992. This was also called the Earth Summit. The summit was attended by 170 states, thousands of NGOs and many multinational corporations. Five years earlier, the 1987 Brundtland Report, Our Common Future, had warned that traditional patterns of economic growth were not sustainable in the long term, especially in view of the demands of the South for further industrial development. What was obvious at the Rio Summit was that the rich and developed countries of the First World, generally referred to as the ‘global North’ were pursuing a different environmental agenda than the poor and developing countries of the Third World, called the ‘global South’. Whereas the Northern states were concerned with ozone depletion and global warming, the Southern states were anxious to address the relationship between economic development and environmental management. The Rio Summit produced conventions dealing with climate change, biodiversity, forestry, and recommended a list of development practices called ‘Agenda 21’. But it left unresolved considerable differences and difficulties. There was a consensus on combining economic growth with ecological responsibility. This approach to development is commonly known as ‘sustainable development’. The problem however was how exactly this was to be achieved. Some critics have pointed out that Agenda 21 was biased in favour of economic growth rather than ensuring ecological conservation.
The Rio Earth Summit is officially known as ____________________?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development
The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, was also called the Earth Summit.
Option (1) The United Nations Conference on Human Environment — Incorrect. This is the name of a different UN conference on the environment, not the Rio meeting of 1992 (see the Note).
Option (2) The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change — Incorrect. The UNFCCC of 1992 is a convention, that is, an agreement among countries to protect the climate system; it is one of the conventions the summit produced, not the name of the summit.
Option (4) The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development — Incorrect. This is the name of another UN conference (see the Note); sustainable development was only the approach agreed upon at Rio.
Note: The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment was held at Stockholm in 1972, and the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (‘Rio+20’) was held again at Rio de Janeiro in 2012.
NCERT (2025-26): “Environmental Concerns in Global Politics … The growing focus on environmental issues within the arena of global politics was firmly consolidated at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992. This was also called the Earth Summit.… Environmental Concerns in Global Politics … The Rio Summit produced conventions dealing with climate change, biodiversity, forestry, and recommended a list of development practices called ‘Agenda 21’.…” |