Environment and Natural Resources Flashcards
rising profile of
environmentalism from the 1960s
onwards.
……….. Earth Summit has brought environmental issues to
the centre-stage of global politics.
1992
The Club of Rome, a global think
tank, published a book in 1972
entitled
“Limits to Growth,
dramatising the potential depletion”
United Nations
Conference on Environment and
Development held in
ALSO KNOWN AS “ EARTH SUMMIT’’
Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992.
[attended by 170 states, thousands
of NGOs and many multinational
corporations.]
First World,
generally referred to as the ‘global
North’ were pursuing a different
environmental agendathan the
poor and developing countries of
the Third World, called the ‘global
South’.
WHAT IS AGENDA 21 ?
Rio Summit produced
conventions dealing with climate
change, biodiversity, forestry, and
recommended a list of development
practices called ‘Agenda 21’.
- Some
critics have pointed out that
Agenda 21 was biased in favour of
economic growth rather than
ensuring ecological conservation.
Five years earlier,
the ……………… 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.
1987 Brundtland
Commons’ ?
are those resources
which are not owned by anyone
but rather shared by a community.
require common
governance by the international
community- THEY CALLED ?
res communis humanitatis or
global commons.
earth’s atmosphere, Antarctica
(see Box), the ocean floor, and
outer space
There have
been many path-breaking
agreements FOR ENVIRONMENT -
- 1959
Antarctic Treaty - the 1987
Montreal Protocol - the 1991
Antarctic Environmental Protocol
ozone hole over
the Antarctic in the mid-1980s
The 1992 United Nations
Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC):
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.”
- It was also
acknowledged that per capita
emissions in developing countries
are still relatively low - China,
India, and other developing
countries were, therefore,
exempted from the requirements
of the Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto
Protocol - 1997
setting targets for
industrialised countries to cut
their greenhouse gas emissions.
Certain gases like Carbon
dioxide, Methane, Hydro-fluoro
carbons etc.[The protocol was
agreed to in 1997 in Kyoto in
Japan, based on principles set
out in UNFCCC.]
India signed and ratified the 1997
Kyoto Protocol in….
August 2002.
- India, China and other developing
countries were exempt from the
requirements of the Kyoto Protocol
WHERE India pointed out that
the per capita emission rates of the
developing countries are a tiny
fraction of those in the developed
world?
At the G-8 meeting in
June 2005,
- discussions- Within UNFCCC about introducing
binding commitments on rapidly
industrialising countries (such as
Brazil, China and India) to reduce
their greenhouse gas emissions.
India when the
country’s rise in per capita carbon
emissions by 2030 is likely to-
- still
represent less than half the world
average of 3.8 tonnes in 2000. - Indian emissions are predicted to
rise from 0.9 tonnes per capita in
2000 to 1.6 tonnes per capita in
2030
ACTION TAKEN BY INDIA :
- National Auto-fuel Policy
mandates cleaner fuels for
vehicles. - The Energy Conservation
Act, passed in 2001, - the Electricity
Act of 2003 encourages the use of
renewable energy - National Mission on Biodiesel,
using about 11 million hectares
of land to produce biodiesel by
2011–2012.
the implementation
of the agreements at the Earth
Summit in Rio was undertaken by
India in …..
1997
India is also of the view that the
SAARC countries should adopt a
common position on major global
environment issues
