World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg 2002

Stakeholder Forum and a number of governments worked from 1998 to 2000 to create momentum for an Earth Summit in 2002. South Africa hosted the Summit, beating South Korea, Brazil and Indonesia in the process.

Rio+5, 1997

The description of sustainable development in Agenda 21 called for a total shift in the status quo of prevalent value systems and institutional processes. Such global change could never have occurred over night. When progress was assessed at Rio+5 (New York, 1997) a number of gaps were identified, particularly with regards to social equity and poverty.

United Nations Conference on Environment and Development – Rio Earth Summit 1992

The 20th anniversary of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment took place in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro. The UN Conference on Environment and Development, the "Earth Summit", agreed to Agenda 21 and the Rio Declaration .

Rio Conventions and Commissions

The Summit brought environment and development issues firmly into the public arena. Along with the Rio Declaration and Agenda 21 it led to agreement on two legally binding conventions: the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It also produced a Statement of Forest Principles.

The Brundtland Commission

In the 1980s the UN set up the Commission on Environment and Development, also known as the Brundtland Commission, named after its Chair Gro Harlem Brundtland.

Stockholm 1972

The concept of sustainable development dates back a long way, but it was at the UN Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm, 1972) that the international community met for the first time to consider global environment and development needs together.