Rio+10, Rio Mais 10 or the World Summit on Sustainable Development, was an event organized by the United Nations (UN) to discuss environmental issues.
The Conference took place in Johannesburg, South Africa, from the 26th of August to the 4th of September 2002.
The event was better known as Rio+10 because it took place 10 years after Rio-92.
Summary
Participating countries
Rio+10 had leaders from 189 countries, in addition to hundreds of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and civil society representatives.
Goals
The objective of Rio+10 was to assess the progress of the agreements established in the Rio-92, from the Agenda 21.
The intention was to discuss what had been accomplished so far and renew the commitments made between the countries. In this case, it was a meeting to assess progress and outline ways to achieve the objectives defined in Rio-92.
However, Rio+10 also stood out for including social aspects and people's quality of life in its discussions.
The other topics discussed were: poverty eradication, water use, management of natural resources and sustainable development.
Want to know more about environmental issues? Read too:
- Environment
- Earth Charter
- Sustainability
Results
It can be said that the results achieved at Rio+10 were not so encouraging.
Many developed countries, such as the United States, have shown themselves to be resistant to participating in more ambitious goals for reducing the emission of polluting gases. This is because such a reduction can compromise the activity of industries and the economy.
At that time, many developed countries had not yet signed the Kyoto Protocol.
One of the documents produced during Rio+10 was the Johannesburg Declaration. In it, nations reaffirm their commitment to the goals of Agenda 21 and to achieving the sustainable development.
However, one of the criticisms of the document is that it did not set goals or deadlines. For some environmentalists, this issue made Rio+10 vague in its results and made it difficult to enforce the agreement signed between the countries.
Finally, the results of Rio+10 did not match the expectations of an international event to discuss the advances and challenges of sustainable development.
Rio+20
Ten years after Rio+10, the Rio+20, one of the biggest events organized by the UN that took place between June 13 and 22, 2012, in Rio de Janeiro.
The event aimed to strengthen and ensure sustainable development among the countries involved.
Discover other events and international agreements on the environment:
- Paris Agreement
- Stockholm Conference
- Montreal Protocol
