Foreword

• Author: John C. Dernbach
• Pages: 1-3

1

Chapter 1:

Foreword

John C . Dernbach

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

was opened for signatu re with great fanfare in June 1992, in Rio de

Janeiro. e occasion was the U.N. Conference on Environment and

Development, or Earth Summit. e Earth Summit was intended to address

two mutually reinforcing problems—widespread global poverty and growing

deterioration of the global environment. Countries agreed to Agenda 21, an

ambitious plan to address these problems, as well as the Rio Declaration, a

set of 27 principles to guide the eort. e object, countries agreed, was not

to abandon development, which had caused or contributed to these problems,

but to make development sustainable. It was no sma ll thing that the Cli-

mate Change Convention was opened for signature at the Earth Summit, for

the Convention is suused with sustainable development concepts. Indeed,

the Convention states, as a basic principle: “e Parties have a right to, and

should, promote sustainable development.”

Many specic sustainable development principles and concepts are

included in the Climate Change Convention. For example, t he key action

principle in sustainable development is integrated decisionmaking. e root

problem, countries agreed, is that development decisions were made without

any regard for the environment or many of the people who depend on it. e

Rio Declaration states: “In order to achieve sustainable development, envi-

ronmental protection shall constitute an integral part of the development

process and cannot be considered in isolation from it.” e Climate Change

Convention builds on the same principle. In various provisions, countries

agreed to integrate climate change mitigation and adaptation policies and

measures into their national development plans and laws.

Both the Rio Declarat ion and the Climate Change Convention put

human well-being at the core sustainable development. Both emphasize

the importance of intergenerational equity. Bot h employ a precautionary

approach to de cisionmaking in the face of scientic u ncertaint y. Both rec-

ognize that all countries have a responsibility to addre ss climate change

and sustainable development, but that developing countries have a greater