Environment and Natural Resources Test - 1

The Rio Summit produced conventions dealing with climate change, biodiversity, and forestry, and recommended a list of development practices called ‘Agenda 21’.

 The Energy Conservation Act passed in 2001, outlines initiatives to improve energy efficiency. 

The early 1980s saw the first anti-dam movement launched in the North, namely, the campaign to save the Franklin River and its surrounding forests in Australia. This was a wilderness and forest campaign as well as an anti-dam campaign. At present, there has been a spurt in mega-dam building in the South, from Turkey to Thailand to South Africa, from Indonesia to China. India has had some of the leading anti-dam, pro-river movements. 

It was the first major initiative on the part of the global community and the nation-states to discuss matters related to climatic and environmental changes at the political level. This is because the issues related to environmental degradation had political implications and influences on the decision-making process of the nation-states. The conference resulted in the endorsement of certain global forest principles.

The Earth Summit was 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’. 

The World Council of Indigenous Peoples was formed in 1975. The Council became subsequently the first of 11 indigenous NGOs to receive consultative status in the UN.

The 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) also provides that the parties should act to protect the climate system “on the basis of equity and in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.” 

The Philippines, where a vast network of groups and organisations campaigned against the Western Mining Corporation (WMC), an Australia-based multinational company. Much opposition to the company in its own country, Australia, is based on anti-nuclear sentiments and advocacy for the basic rights of Australian indigenous peoples.

According to the Human Development Report 2016 of the United Nations Development Programme, 663 million people in developing countries have no access to safe water and 2.4 billion have no access to sanitation, resulting in the death of more than three million children every year.

It is not true that the countries in the North are more concerned about the protection of the Global Commons; in fact, the developing countries in the South have acknowledged the problems affecting the Global Commons stating that they require common solutions and concerted international efforts. The countries in the South cannot play the role of opposition; therefore, they call for interaction and synthesis with the nations in the North in order to manage and protect the Global Commons. However, at the same time, it calls for a greater responsibility to be taken on the part of the Northern countries to protect the Global Commons.