Rio+20: What‟s the point?

  • Meryl Burgess

Abstract

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Earth Summit in 1992 was meant to create positive impacts for the future. When the first Rio conference on environmental sustainability took place in 1992, issues such as environmental sustainability, and global development without excessive environmental harm, let alone establishing treaties on climate change, desertification and biodiversity were not on my mind. I had just turned 5 years old, with few cares for anything but Barbie dolls and ice-cream. I had no idea what was taking place in the world at that time. Did this big event change something to the positive?