The premiere stage of environmental diplomacy 50 years ago, the Stockholm Conference leveraged the relevance of the environment to a strategic level in international relations.
In the Swedish capital, the UN brought together representatives from 113 countries from the 5th (which would later become World Environment Day) to the 16th of June 1972. The event created the UNEP (United Nations Environment Program Environment) and approved a declaration with 26 principles — among them, preventing pollution, reducing the release of heavy metals into nature and controlling agricultural pesticides.
The impetus for global mobilization came from ecological disasters in recent decades, especially in developed countries, such as mercury contamination in the Japanese city of Minamata.
The flag raised by the developed countries, however, caused distrust in the bloc of developing countries, which sought economic cooperation agendas.
The conference sought to trace a route of union between the environment and development, discussed jointly until the present day. The connection between the agendas was a requirement of Brazil — which even today reinforces this position.
“In the long run, development goals themselves become environmental in nature,” Brazilian diplomat Miguel Ozório told a regional seminar in 1971.
The position won the support of developing countries and was taken forward in the preparatory meetings in Stockholm, as a condition for the event to have global participation.
Under the military government, Brazil feared that an environmental treaty would impose limitations on its sovereignty, on the exploitation of the territory and on economic growth — poignant in that period from agricultural and industrial expansion. Other fast-growing countries, such as South Africa and South Korea, shared this fear.
“There was an impressive denial of reality. Brazil was champion. It led the conception that this was an agenda of rich countries to keep poor countries in poverty”, says Eduardo Viola, professor of international relations at the University of BrasÃlia and researcher at the IEA -USP.
“This conception was part of a group that was against the Stockholm agenda. Today it is different: Brazil is at an extreme of denialism in the world.”
Pressured to maintain an authoritarian regime and questioned about human rights and protection of indigenous lands, the country was also seeking a diplomatic solution.
“There was also the perception that favoring the economic growth of totalitarian countries further aggravated the problems in the areas of human rights and the environment”, says ambassador André Corrêa do Lago in the book “Conferences on Sustainable Development”.
The author —who headed the Brazilian delegation in climate negotiations between 2011 and 2013— narrates that developed countries were afraid of a possible Brazilian blockade to the conference, but maintains that the Itamaraty’s intention was to make proposals.
The Brazilian resistance to the environmental agenda brought by developed countries is evaluated as a historic mistake by environmentalist sectors. However, the intertwining of the environmental agenda with the development agenda prevailed in the international discussion in the following decades, which is seen by diplomacy as a historic success.
“The position defended by Brazil during an authoritarian regime would prove to be adequate for a democratic country”, says Do Lago.
“Whenever the prospect of an investment in environmental improvement cannot be directly or indirectly linked to an increase in production or productivity, and if the increase is not equal to or greater than the average productivity obtained in other economic initiatives, the investment in the environment will not be justified at this specific stage of economic development”, summarized Miguel Ozório in a preparatory document for Stockholm.
Guided by the perception that environmental issues would have a local or regional scope, the Stockholm conference had as its main development, in the following years, the creation of national policies for environmental protection and control bodies in dozens of countries.
In 1974, Brazil created the Special Secretariat for the Environment, a precursor to the Ministry of the Environment. In 1981, it started to rely on a set of public bodies to manage environmental protection, through the National Environment System. In 1988, the principles of environmental protection and the right to a balanced environment were expressed in the then new Constitution.
“The environmental issue has penetrated practically all middle or high income countries. In poor countries, according to the World Bank’s classification, the penetration of the environmental issue is still very low”, evaluates Viola.
In 1987, the Brundtland Commission report sealed the union between the environment and development agendas by coining the term “sustainable development”, which remains current and gives its name to the UN 2030 Agenda. It deals with the global and voluntary pursuit of 17 Sustainable Development Goals, ranging from the fight against hunger to the implementation of renewable energy.
However, the global dimension of environmental issues would still come to the fore with the development of scientific evidence on climate change and the creation of the IPCC (UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) in 1988.
Unlike contamination and ecological disasters that are limited to a territory, greenhouse gases emitted anywhere have a general impact on the sum of emissions that cause climate change. The account —with differentiated responsibilities between poor and rich countries— became planetary.
In 1992, Rio de Janeiro hosted the first United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio-92. It consolidated a strategic place for the environmental agenda in international relations, with the creation of conventions to negotiate agreements on climate change and biodiversity.
After 50 years of Stockholm, the Swedish capital once again welcomed representatives from around the world for the celebration event last week. The implication of the environmental agenda in the economic agenda was explained by the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, who defended a reform in the measurement of economic progress.
“Part of the solution is to dispense with GDP [Produto Interno Bruto] as an indicator of the countries’ economic influence,” he said. “Let’s not forget that when we destroy a forest, we are increasing GDP. When we overfish, we are increasing GDP. GDP is not a way of measuring wealth in the current state of the world,” he added.
Conferences and environmental disasters
1956 – Minamata Disaster
Mass contamination by mercury discarded by an industry, in the Japanese city of Minamata, causes thousands of cases of neurological diseases.
1962 – ‘Silent Spring’
The book by American marine biologist Rachel Carson denounces the impacts of pesticides and the misinformation spread by the chemical industry, boosting the environmental movement.
1968 – Club of Rome
Italian businessman Aurelio Peccei, president of Fiat, meets with scientists and politicians to discuss the future of the human condition on the planet. In 1972, the group publishes the report “The Limits to Growth”.
1972 – Stockholm Conference
For the first time, countries recognize the responsibility to protect the environment; UN creates UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme).
1986 – Chernobyl accident
The explosion of a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine kills thousands of people as a result of contact with radiation.
1987 – Report ‘Our Common Future’
The Brundtland Commission proposes the concept of sustainable development: “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs”.
1987 – Montreal Protocol
Countries are committed to eliminating the emission of gases that deplete the atmosphere’s ozone layer.
1988 – Climate Panel
UN creates the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change).
1992 – Rio-92
First UN conference on environment and development, in Rio, publishes the Earth Charter and creates climate conventions.
1997 – Kyoto Protocol
First climate change agreement is signed and imposes emission reduction targets
of greenhouse gases to
developed countries.
The agreement creates rules for carbon markets.
2005 – Insufficient agreement
Kyoto Protocol finally enters into force, without counting on the ratification of the USA, the biggest historical emitter of greenhouse gases.
2009 – COP15 in Copenhagen
Conference seeks to create new agreement to replace Kyoto, but fails. Rich countries pledge US$ 100 billion to the developing bloc for climate action by 2020 – the amount has not been completed until today.
2011 – Nagoya Protocol
As a result of the Convention on Biological Diversity created at Rio-92, the agreement creates rules for the sharing of benefits from the economic use of genetic resources from biodiversity.
2015 – Paris Agreement
Agreement has climate targets freely determined by each country. The objective is to contain global warming by up to 2ºC, preferably close to 1.5ºC. The world has already warmed by 1°C.
2017 – New setback
The US disembarks from the Paris Agreement, causing a new wave of international apprehension over environmental commitments.
2018 – IPCC imposes deadline
In a report on the global warming limit of 1.5ºC, the UN climate panel establishes that the world must cut 55% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 to avoid catastrophic damage to the climate.
2021 – Paris Rulebook
At COP26, countries conclude the regulation of the Paris Agreement, defining rules to monitor emission reductions. Under new government, the US returns to the agreement. Developing countries continue to demand funding for climate action.
2022 – Catastrophic records
Measurements show that the last seven years have been the warmest in history. In Brazil, floods cause deaths and leave people homeless, while droughts in the South cause agricultural losses.
