The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development is an international environmental declaration adopted at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992. Reaffirming and building upon the principles of the 1972 Stockholm Declaration (often referred to as the Declaration on the Human Environment), the Rio Declaration was the first to formally recognize that environmental protection and economic development cannot be separated. More than 175 countries have signed it, and it consists of 27 principles serving as national action guidelines for sustainable development.
The core of the Rio Declaration is the institutionalization of the concept of ‘Sustainable Development.’ Principle 1 states that human beings are at the center of concerns for sustainable development and are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature. Principle 3 stipulates that the right to development must be fulfilled so as to equitably meet the developmental and environmental needs of present and future generations. Alongside this, the Rio Declaration formally recognized that developed and developing countries bear differing environmental responsibilities through the principle of ‘Common but Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR).’
[Rio Declaration(Rio Declaration on Environment and Development) © ESG.ONL/ESG Today]
Among the 27 principles of the Rio Declaration, Principles 10 and 15 are particularly noteworthy. Principle 10 centers on the idea that environmental issues are best handled with the participation of all concerned citizens, presenting three core rights: access to environmental information, the right to participate in decision-making, and access to judicial remedies. Principle 15, the Precautionary Principle, establishes that where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage to the environment or human health, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing environmental protection measures. Since the adoption of the Rio Declaration, these two principles have served as important benchmarks in international environmental law and national environmental policies.
The Rio Declaration became the starting point for the international climate and environmental framework that led to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the 2015 Paris Agreement, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals adopted in the same year. The concepts of environmental responsibility, stakeholder participation, and intergenerational equity emphasized in ESG management are also rooted in the principles of the Rio Declaration.
by Editor O