Page 30 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

2.2 Sustainability in the global public agenda 25
down the “silo thinking” in problem-solving. Secondly, giving the same importance to the
three dimensions leads to the idea of trade-offs among sectors, in line with a weak sustain-
ability approach, allowing substitutability among different capital typologies.
The ecological approach sees the environment as the priority, since the social and economic
systems cannot exist without the life-support services and resources provided by nature.
In that sense, compared to the three-pillar approach this one is more coherent, with a
strong sustainability approach affirming a nonsubstitutability of critical stocks of natural
capital (cf. Giddings et al., 2002 for a graphic representation).

2.2 Sustainability in the global public agenda

After the first appearance of the concept of Sustainable Development within the World
Commission on Environment and Development in 1987, the first United Nations Conference
on Environment and Development (UNCED) took place in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, also known
as the Rio Conference or Earth Summit. This global meeting led to three main outputs: (i) the
adoption of the Rio Declaration; (ii) the adoption of a Sustainable Development Programme
called Agenda 21; (iii) the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC).
The Rio Declaration (United Nations, 1992a) stated the centrality of present and future
human beings in any concerns and the need of an integration of the environmental protection
principle within the development process, while confirming the right of sovereign states to
exploit their own resources as long as they commit to warning each other about any danger-
ous activities. In addition, it linked environmental and poverty issues as interdependent
and concerning all countries, with common though differentiated responsibilities. Lastly,
it affirmed the need to stop nonviable production and consumption patterns and to encour-
age the viable ones. Compared to previous international policies, three new approaches were
suggested for taking action: (i) active engagement and participation of citizens;
(ii) identification and engagement of stakeholder groups to be engaged, such as NGOs, labor
unions, local authorities, companies, the scientific community, youth groups, women, and
local communities; (iii) an integrated vision of the interdependence among peace, develop-
ment, and the environment.
Agenda 21 (United Nations, 1992b) was the first internationally agreed sustainable
development program, which put into practice the new approaches proposed within the
Rio Declaration. For instance, the subsidiarity principle is applied, envisioning a participative
implementation of the agenda at the local level, as the most appropriate in terms of education,
mobilization, resource exploitation, planning and economics, and social and environmental
infrastructure maintenance.
Lastly, the UNFCCC (United Nations, 1992c) is the first United Nations attempt to clarify
what climate change is and how to cope with it. Three main principles are proposed through
this framework: (i) precaution; (ii) common though differentiated responsibilities; and
(iii) right to development. The framework is not binding, but it provides countries the pos-
sibility to engage further internationally. The Kyoto Protocol (United Nations, 1998), in effect
from 2005 to 2012, is the first example of this kind.
During the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in 2012, the
development of a set of goals and targets aiming at promoting sustainable development