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The Stockholm Conference in 1972 adopted a Declaration and
an Action Plan for the international co-operation on the environment.
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The Brundtland Commission developed conceptually the relationship
between environment and development. The commission emphasized the importance
of economic growth and promoted the concept "sustainable
development".
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The Rio Conference "United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development (UNCED)" in 1992 adopted three documents:
the Rio Declaration, Agenda 21 and, the Statement of Forest Principles.
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In the Kyoto protocol industrialized states have committed
themselves to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases.
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The convention on Biological Diversity obliges parties to
produce national strategies for the conservation and sustainable use of
biological diversity and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits
arising from its use.
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The Convention to Combat Desertification came into force in
1996. Interestingly it has a strong emphasis on local participation and
local empowerment.
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A global convention was signed in 2001 aiming at phasing out
12 persistent and bioaccumulative organic pollutants (POPs).
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The Nairobi Declaration, 1997, states that UNEP (United
Nations Environment Programme) is the leading global environmental authority
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The European Community declared in 1972 that: "Economic
expansion should be accompanied by environmental protection so as to achieve
a genuine improvement of the quality of life".
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In the first years of the EC environmental policy two types
of directives were issued. 1) Directives that were designed to remove trade
barriers that resulted from diverging national environmental requirements to
products and 2) Directives on environmental quality standards.
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The first major amendment to the Treaty of Rome, the Single
European Act was signed in 1985. It includes two parts directly relevant for
environmental policy: 1) A separate environmental section was included to
"preserve, protect and improve the quality of the environment". 2)
An article was amended that prescribes a co-operation procedure for all decisions
aimed at the establishment and functioning of the internal market.
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The Helsinki Commission was established for keeping the
implementation of the Helsinki Convention under continuous surveillance,
keeping the content of the Convention under review, making recommendations,
defining pollution control criteria and objectives for the reduction of
pollution.
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The Baltic Sea Joint Comprehensive Environmental Action
Programme, JCP, initially identified 132 hot sots were pollution was
considered as severe. The hot spots were divided into four categories:
Industrial, municipal, agricultural run-off, and coastallLagoon wetland.
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Baltic 21 or an Agenda 21 for the Baltic Sea region was
launched in 1996. It focuses on seven factors of crucial economic and environmental
importance in the region. The sectors are: Agriculture, energy, fisheries,
forestry, industry, tourism, and transport. In 2002 a further sector,
education, was added to the list.
