Reaffirming the Environment-Development Nexus of UNCED 1992

Ch a p t e r Th r e eINTEGRATION OF DEVELOPMENTCONCERNS IN GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTISSUES: BACKGROUNDUNCED was originally an initiative of governments and environmentNGOs in some Northern countries, which had become increasinglyanxious about the deteriorating state of the environment worldwide.They decided that it would be timely to hold a world conferenceon the environment to mark the twentieth year after the StockholmEnvironment Conference of 1972, which had led to the establishmentof the United Nations Environment Programme.When the idea of an environment conference was introduced in theUnited Nations, many developing countries were concerned that thisinitiative could lead to the highlighting of environment issues thatwould place new obligations and disciplines on their ability to enjoyeconomic growth and development. Some developing countriesfeared that the environment could be used as another instrumentto keep the South at low levels of development, whilst Northerncountries that possessed more environmentally friendly technologycould continue to grow and enjoy high consumption levels.They thus insisted that whilst environment problems could bebrought up as an issue of global priority, these should be discussedsimultaneously with a range of “development issues”, since therewas also a crisis of development side by side with the crisis of theenvironment. Moreover, so the argument went, the developingcountries would not be able to adequately tackle environment13