An important achievement of the summit was an agreement on the
Climate Change Convention, which in turn led to the
Kyoto Protocol and the
Paris Agreement. Another agreement was "not to carry out any activities on the lands of
indigenous peoples that would cause
environmental degradation or that would be culturally inappropriate". The
Convention on Biological Diversity was opened for signature at the Earth Summit and made a start towards a redefinition of measures that did not inherently encourage the destruction of natural
ecoregions and so-called
uneconomic growth.
World Oceans Day was initially proposed at this conference and has been recognized since then. Although President
George H. W. Bush signed the Earth Summit's Convention on Climate, his EPA Administrator
William K. Reilly acknowledges that U.S. goals at the conference were difficult to negotiate and the agency's international results were mixed, including the U.S. failure to sign the proposed Convention on Biological Diversity. Twelve cities were also honored with the Local Government Honours Award for innovative local environmental programs. These included
Sudbury in
Canada for its ambitious program to rehabilitate environmental damage from the local
mining industry,
Austin in the
United States for its
green building strategy, and
Kitakyūshū in
Japan for incorporating an international education and training component into its municipal
pollution control program. The Earth Summit resulted in the following documents: •
Rio Declaration on Environment and Development Moreover, important legally binding agreements (
Rio Convention) were opened for signature: •
Convention on Biological Diversity •
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) At Rio it was agreed that an International Negotiating Committee for a third convention the
United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification would be set up. This convention was negotiated within two years of Rio and then open for signature. It became effective in 1996 after receiving 50 ratifications. In order to ensure compliance to the agreements at Rio (particularly the
Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and
Agenda 21), delegates to the Earth Summit established the
Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD). In 2013, the CSD was replaced by the
High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development that meets every year as part of the ECOSOC meetings, and every fourth year as part of the General Assembly meetings. Critics point out that many of the agreements made in Rio have not been realized regarding such fundamental issues as fighting
poverty and cleaning up the
environment. Malaysia was successful at blocking the US-proposed convention on forests and its prime-minister
Mahathir Mohamad accused later the
global North of exercising
eco-imperialism at this summit. According to
Vandana Shiva, Earth Summit create a
"moral base for green imperialism". In 2013, the Geneva-based organization
Green Cross International was founded to build upon the work of the Summit. The first edition of Water Quality Assessments, published by WHO/
Chapman & Hall, was launched at the Rio Global Forum. == Youth ==