Reaffirming the Environment-Development Nexus of UNCED 1992

and responsibilities due to their larger share in causing the problemsand their relatively larger capacity to meet the costs. The intensediscussions in this negotiating group were the political centreof PrepCom 4. Eventually, much of the South’s arguments andperspectives prevailed, as manifested in several of the Rio Declarationprinciples, especially Principle 3 that “the right to development mustbe fulfilled so as to equitably meet developmental and environmentalneeds of present and future generations”, and Principle 7 that “in viewof the different contributions to global environmental degradation,States have common but differentiated responsibilities” and that“developed countries acknowledge the responsibility that they bearin the international pursuit of sustainable development in view of thepressures their societies place on the global environment and of thetechnologies and financial resources they command”.Meanwhile, intense attention was also focused on the negotiatinggroups on finance and on technology transfer, as these two issueshad for the developing countries become the “proxies” or testinggrounds to determine the seriousness of the North in extendingassistance to or agreeing to partnership with the South.The central argument of the G77 and China was that developingcountries could successfully make the transition to sustainabledevelopment only if they could simultaneously take care of theirdevelopment needs. In line with the principle of differentiatedresponsibility and partnership, the North had to contribute to “newand additional” financial resources to the South as well as facilitate theeffective transfer of technology at concessional terms to the South.32