Sustainability Conventions

The United Nations Role

The United Nations was established in 1945, following World War 2, to address problems of human conflict and as a forum to facilitate international cooperation. UNESCO, The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization uses education, science, culture, communication, and information to foster mutual understanding and respect for our planet. UNESCO is part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group, a coalition of UN agencies and organizations tasked to meet Sustainable Development Goals.

The United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development was established in 1992 and replaced in 2013 by the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. The Forum recommended a global agreement to raise international awareness of the need to integrate development with the environment. In 2012 the Commission published Sustainable Development Goals in the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development 1992. The Declaration contains the following key sustainability principles.

Principle 8

To achieve sustainable development and a higher quality of life for all people, States should reduce and eliminate unsustainable patterns of production and consumption and promote appropriate demographic policies.

Principle 9

States should cooperate to strengthen endogenous capacity-building for sustainable development by improving scientific understanding through exchanges of scientific and technological knowledge, and by enhancing the development, adaptation, diffusion and transfer of technologies, including new and innovative technologies.

Principle 10

Environmental issues are best handled with the participation of all concerned citizens, at the relevant level. At the national level, each individual shall have appropriate access to information concerning the environment that is held by public authorities, including information on hazardous materials and activities in their communities, and the opportunity to participate in decision-making processes. States shall facilitate and encourage public awareness and participation by making information widely available. Effective access to judicial and administrative proceedings, including redress and remedy, shall be provided.

Principle 11

States shall enact effective environmental legislation. Environmental standards, management objectives and priorities should reflect the environmental and developmental context to which they apply. Standards applied by some countries may be inappropriate and of unwarranted economic and social cost to other countries, in particular developing countries.

Principle 13

States shall develop national law regarding liability and compensation for the victims of pollution and other environmental damage. States shall also cooperate in an expeditious and more determined manner to develop further international law regarding liability and compensation for adverse effects of environmental damage caused by activities within their jurisdiction or control to areas beyond their jurisdiction.

Article 5.2 of the Paris Agreement encourages Parties to adopt conservation and management as a tool for increasing carbon stocks. Article 7.1 encourages Parties to build the resilience of socioeconomic and ecological systems through economic diversification and sustainable management of natural resources.

The Parliament of Canada has adopted the Federal Sustainable Development Act which contains sustainable development principles to be followed by all Federal Government departments.