Patricia Mae J. Paraiso Dr. Hildie Maria E.

Nacorda
MS in Environmental Science ENS 275 WX

A Critique Paper on Sustainable development: making the mainstream of

Green Development by W.M. Adams

The reading is all about the evolution of thinking about sustainable development
in twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It provides an overview of Stockholm (1972) and
Johannesburg (2002) conferences and a deep understanding about the Rio conference
in 1992. These conferences started, defined and organized the sustainable
development international agenda. The article focuses on The United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 (UNCED, or the Rio Conference)
which is attended by one hundred and seventy-two governments. The author not only
stated the details of this significant conference but also its strengths and weaknesses.
A progression of reports was settled at Rio, conveying sustainable development from
Our Common Future, Caring for the Earth and The World Conservation Methodology
(WCS). Aside from the productive meetings, there are still disappointments revealed like
bitter conflicts of interests between industrialized and non-industrialized countries. Also,
representatives of NGOs were disappointed because of their lack of influence in official
meetings.

The fundamental output of Rio is the Agenda 21 which is an archive of more than
600 pages in length. It gives the premise of sustainable development in every aspects
and actions and serves as the core and reference for every country regarding
environmental sustainability and development. However, with regards to forest
principles, settlements were not met because rainforest countries disagreed on the
global forest conservation arguing that industrialized countries have a long history of
clearing their forest in time of their industrialization. These arguments were recognized
resulting on national sovereignty for forests in the Forest Principle document.
 The Convention of Biological Diversitys aim to conserve biological diversity and
promote the sustainable use of species and ecosystems and the equitable sharing of
the benefits of genetic resources was reflected clearly in chapter 15 and 16 of Agenda
21. However, the concept of biotechnology remained controversial with the rise of
genetic science. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
concurred at Rio was the product of growing impacts of climate change in the 1980s.
Also, in this convention, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was
presented but firm policies on reduction of greenhouse gases were still being debated.
It is clear that these conferences were very productive for producing vast amounts of
knowledge, clarifications and agreements towards mainstreaming sustainable
development. The problem arises when actions turn into smaller units, from
international to national and from national to each community. Binding political
commitments are necessary to continue the goals of each conference in order to
achieve sustainable development.