Environmental Management: Principles and practice

The 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de
Janeiro, Agenda 21, and follow-up meetings
One commentator felt that the main achievement of the Rio Earth Summit was to
‘put the world’s nose against the window’; i.e. it made environmental issues matters
of serious interest for administrators, commerce and the Earth’s public (Thomas,
1994). The Earth Summit produced a programme of action, Agenda 21, which
published goals and targets enunciated in the Earth Charter. It has already had some
influence on policy making in Europe, North America, many other countries, and a
number of international agencies (Young, 1994; Henry, 1996; Voisey et al., 1996). It
is not an exaggeration to view the Earth Summit and Agenda 21 as an important and
effective catalyst for environmental management and sustainable development.
What the 1992 Earth Summit agreed was a Convention on Climate Change; a
Statement of Principles on Forests; a Biodiversity Treaty (which the USA would not
sign, largely because it threatened biodiversity patent rights); Agenda 21; the
establishment of a UN Commission on Sustainable Development (possibly the most
important achievement); and a Declaration on Environment and Development
(Holmberg et al., 1993; Dodds, 1997). Since Rio, the UN General Assembly has
held (in 1997) a Special Session in New York, dubbed ‘Earth Summit II’ (or ‘Earth
Summit + 5’). This was intended to take stock of what progress had been made in

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meeting the commitments made at Rio (Osborn and Bigg, 1998). The next Earth
Summit is scheduled for AD 2002. (Before and during Rio and for the 1997 session
NGOs held their own meetings to develop and contribute their views.)
Post-Cold War environmental management
Not only has the Iron Curtain fallen, making it easier to exchange information and to
co-operate on environmental care, but the capitalist system seems likely to become
dominant. To have much effect, environmental management will probably have to
work with and manipulate commercial interests. With growing populations and limited
resources, developing countries should be targeted for environmental aid to spread
better environmental management (Colby, 1990; Erocal, 1991; UNDP, 1992).
In many countries over the last decade there has been a trend towards
privatization, decentralization and economic restructuring. The private sector has
taken on much of what the public sector once did, so that private companies, non-
profit-making bodies and NGOs are playing and will in future probably play greater
roles in things like environmental management and resource management (Carney
and Farrington, 1998).
Sovereignty is a problem: states have the right to exploit their own resources,
but this can affect other nations. Nation states are here for the foreseeable future and
ruling elites will continue to influence their political decisions and development
policies. There also appears to be a shift towards supranational controls (Stoett,
1995:12). Current western thinking on the global environment is dominated by a
faith in the essentially compatible nature of humanity, rationality and enlightened
self-interest.
Since the late 1940s unity and co-operation between the nations of Europe
have grown. The European Economic Community (EEC) evolved into the European
Union (EU) in 1957, and is still gaining members and developing links with non-EU
countries. The EU consumes a significant part of the world’s resources and plays a
strong and increasing role in shaping the modern global economy, influencing the
world’s environmental agreements and providing aid to poor countries. As the EU
expands and becomes more integrated it offers environmental policy makers
opportunities for wider co-operation and enforcement. (For an overview of EU
environmental policy and country eco-profiles see Hewett, 1995.)
The Cold War may have ended (at least for the near future between western
nations and the former Soviet Union), but conflicts with serious environmental impacts
continue—the Iraq-Kuwait conflict caused serious pollution through burning oilfields.
With nuclear, chemical and biological armaments spreading, fears of economic
stagnation or slump, and a growing underclass of poor, often disenfranchised people
means that, while the Cold War may have ended, there are still abundant threats.
How can nation states be prevailed upon to adopt good environmental
management? Stoett (1994) examined these issues and expressed hope that
international bodies could be instrumental, arguing that the UN had already established
a Commission on Sustainable Development (in 1992), and that the Intergovernmental

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Panel on Climate Change (established 1988) had brought scientific legitimacy to
global warming predictions. There has also been some progress since the 1994 (Cairo)
International Conference on Population and Development in dealing with human
population growth, plus some signs that there may be the start of a fall in birthrates
in some countries. Unfortunately, even if there is establishment of relevant
international bodies, and assuming most nations sign agreements, there remains the
problem of enforcement—signing a treaty, convention or agreement is no guarantee
the signatory will abide by it or contribute to funding.
Some hope the market will drive environmental management; others are looking
beyond that (Redclift, 1992). Perhaps novel and relatively painless new taxation
measures could be developed by the UN to pay for environmental management:
levies on use of geosynchronous orbits for satellites, eco-tax on all air travellers, or
golfers? Compared with expenditure on armaments at the height of the Cold War, or
even at present, the cost of curing the most pressing environmental problems is
relatively affordable (see Figure 14.1).