Global Environment Facility (GEF)
Global Environment Facility
Input to the Compilation Document of the
United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20)
October 31, 2011
Contribution of the GEF to the Rio+20 Compilation Document
1. 1992 UNCED Original Agenda and the Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development (IFSD) Background
The community of nations came to Rio in 1992 with the conviction that the environment was inextricably linked to development. Rio concluded that urgent action was needed at the planetary scale to address the rapid and widespread loss of biological diversity, the rising threats posed by human-induced climate change, and increased insecurity faced by hundreds of millions of people due to land degradation and desertification.
By addressing priority global environmental concerns, the three Rio Conventions irrevocably introduced the development agenda to its third pillar, bringing it together with the social and economic agendas, under the banner of sustainable development.
This agenda remains as current today as it was 20 years ago, and much has been achieved since Rio. However, the original framework from the 1992 UNCED became progressively fragmented by virtue of the separate routes taken by the Rio accords. 20 years later, we have come to realize that biodiversity, climate change, and sustainable land management are integral parts of the same puzzle.
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