Assessing the Outcomes of Rio+20

Abstract

Ecosystems and economies are intertwined, and international cooperation is critical to addressing cross-border threats to the integrity of habitats and biomes. Economic and political effects of national policy decisions can reverberate around the world within days. Simply put, sustainability cannot be achieved without integrating environment and development at the international level. This was recognized as early as the 1970s, when governments convened at the landmark Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment to create the architecture for global environmental governance, defining sustainability as an economy “in equilibrium with basic ecological support systems” and recognizing the confluence of environmental, economic, and social concerns.¹