World Needs to Save the Planet

of the head-lining international cooperations on environmental matters, which sought to provide guidelines to governments, encouraging them to act collectively towards repairing the environment.

Even as we struggle to pick up the pieces of the destruction wrecked by Cyclone Amphan, we hear of forests of Uttarakhand going up in smoke. Reports of 40 incidents of forest fire across four districts of Nainital, Almora, Tehri Garhwal and Pauri Garhwal in the state have surfaced. These unseasonal fires are raging when temperatures are not even within the maximum range. In these areas, higher temperatures are generally known to catalyse such fires. But what has set alarm bells ringing is that forest fires have started in the winter months in many districts this time.1 Make no mistake, apocalyptic weather events, triggered by climate

crisis are becoming more real by the day. Even Uttarakhand’s forest department officials have reckoned that the swell in forest fire incidents this year can be attributed to change in climatic conditions, such as strong winds, no rainfall, rise in temperature with less rainfall and snowfall during the winters.²

Even as climate change accelerates cyclones, forest fire infernos, unrelenting rain, and record-breaking deluges, nations need to re-double their efforts on emissions and clean energy. It is not as if they were turning a blind eye to a warming world earlier. There have been talks about strengthening international cooperation to usher positive changes to the environment for years now. Accords on the environment have brought

together countries who have marshalled resources to combat the degradation of the planet and slash emissions to some extent. Although critics point out that the tangible results of these summits have been elusive, innovative and cooperative efforts of nations have continued over the years.

This article examines the history and objectives of some of the head-lining international cooperations on environmental matters, which sought to provide guidelines to governments, encouraging them to act collectively towards repairing the environment.

Stockholm Conference 1972

The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (also known as the Stockholm Conference) was held in Stockholm, Sweden, from June 5, to June 16, 1972. It was attended by 113 member states of the United Nations, as well as members of its specialised agencies. It stood out not only as the first UN summit on the environment but also for recognising it as a global political agenda.

Clearly the conference’s legacy lies in framing environmental degradation as a collective global concern. Scholar Jutta Brunnée, in her paper ‘The Stockholm Declaration and the Structure and Processes of International Environmental Law,’ writes that The Stockholm Declaration “laid the foundation for a shift in international environmental law from its predominant focus on transboundary pollution to a conceptual framework with a much broader outlook.”³

Although the Stockholm Conference was marked by an undercurrent of strife between the industrialised world and developing countries, it brought into its fold a multitude of environmental actors including scientists, activists and nongovernmental organisations. The highlight was the establishment of a Working Group on the Declaration on the Human Environment, based on environmental reports from various governmental, inter-governmental and nongovernmental sources.

Specific committees were also formed to study the following:

• • Planning and management of human settlements for environmental quality;
• • Educational, informational, social and cultural aspects of environmental quality;
• • Environmental aspects of natural resources management;
• • Development and environment;
• • Identification and control of pollutants of broad international significance; and
• • International organizational implications of action proposals.

After much consideration and discussion, the Declaration on the Human Environment containing 7 proclamations and 26 principles was adopted by the Conference on June 16, 1972. The Conference also adopted 109 recommendations for environmental action at the international level. In 20 years, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development 1992 (Rio Earth Summit) took note of the development in the intervening years and reconsidered the principles. These later paved the way for ground-breaking international agreements like the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement, etc. leading to the way we perceive and protect the environment today

Some of the crucial principles which formed the bedrock of environmental laws and global intergovernmental action have been given below:

Principle 1: Right to Protect Environment

Principle 2: Management of Natural Resources

The natural resources of the earth, including the air, water, land, flora and fauna and especially representative samples of natural ecosystems, must be safeguarded for the benefit of present and future generations through careful planning or management, as appropriate.

Although Stockholm was one of the first summits, it was the earliest to take cognisance of the devastation triggered by human impact on the environment. It was also a pioneer in cobbling together a united front to conserve the planet. Not surprisingly, the Stockholm Declaration is a document reinforcing environmental policy goals and objectives, instead of setting specific standards or guidelines. But it did prove to be a breakthrough moment in environmental awareness, and influenced international environmental law-making in its own way. “The Stockholm Declaration did not expand the conceptual framework of international environmental law. Yet, it did foreshadow, to a remarkable degree, the framework within which international environmental lawyers operate today,” says Brunnée.⁴

International environmental activism also got a fillip post the Stockholm Conference, as around 400 NGOs attended it, enriching the consultative process on environmental protection to a great degree. A motley group of scientists, business representatives, journalists, lobbyists and others made the conference much more broad-based and representative. Non-state actors mostly used marches, songs and demonstrations to draw attention to issues of pollution control, civil rights and even vegetarianism.

The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development 1992

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) met at Rio de Janeiro from June 3 to June 14, 1992 to create a document containing 27 guiding principles called the Rio Declaration on Environment & Development (or the Rio Declaration). Billed as a major environmental legal landmark, this document reaffirms the Stockholm Convention of 1972 and builds upon it with the goal of establishing a new and equitable global partnership. This is hoped to be achieved through the creation of new levels of cooperation among states, key sectors of societies and people. It also recognises the integral and interdependent nature of the earth and calls it our home.

The principles are built around the need for human beings to adopt Sustainable Development and co-exist harmoniously with nature (Principle 1). It urges states to create developmental policies that take the environment into consideration while not damaging anything outside their domestic territory (Principle 2, 4). It also discusses development keeping in mind intragenerational equity (Principle 3). It recognises the need for eradicating poverty (Principle 5), global switch towards a sustainable lifestyle (Principle 8), gender equality (Principle 20), mobilisation of the youth (Principle 21), effective participation of the Indigenous groups and local communities and protection of their identity, culture and interests (Principle 22), in order to move towards sustainable development and decreasing disparities in the global standards of living.

Simultaneously, the Declaration, is also a set of principles, that acknowledge that preserving the environment is a priority and set international guidelines to that end. It also stresses that at the national level, awareness and access to information concerning the environment amongst citizens must be facilitated by the state along with enacting effective environmental legislations, effective access to judicial and administrative proceedings, including grievance redressal and remedy. (Principle 10, 11).

As per the principles, the national law must address liability of the polluter and compensation for the victims of the damage (Principle 13). The principles also lay stress on fixing liability on the polluters. It talks about the Precautionary Principle (Principle 15) and the Polluter Pays Principle (Principle 16), which have been accepted as law of the land to ensure that those contaminating the environment must be identified and be held accountable for their actions, before and after the act. Principle 17 talks about Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA):

“Environmental impact assessment, as a national instrument, shall be undertaken for proposed activities that are likely to have a significant adverse impact on the environment and are subject to a decision of a competent national authority”

This becomes particularly relevant in the Indian context as EIA is an essential part of Indian law. However, attempts to dilute it are being made through the Draft Environmental Impact Assessment 2020. The 2020 Draft waters down several significant long-standing principles of environmental jurisprudence, such as the Polluter Pays Principle, Precautionary Principle, Public Trust Doctrine and the standards set out in international conventions such as the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, 1992, and the Paris Agreement, 2015.

In fact, according to Professor Günther Handl, “one of several of the Rio Declaration Principles that does not have a counterpart in the Stockholm Declaration is Principle 15, which provides that ‘the precautionary approach shall be widely applied by States according to their capabilities:’ Whenever there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, a lack of full scientific certainty shall not excuse States from taking cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.”⁵

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, which also has the popular moniker of Earth Summit, did have tangible