CSD – Commission On Sustainable Development

Abstract

The Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) was established in 1992 at the tEarth Summitt, the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro. In formal terms, the CSD is one of the nine functional commissions of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), not to be confused with the Commission on Social Development. When the UN secretariat was restructured after the Rio conference, a new Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) was formed and headed by Under-Secretary-General. One branch of DESA is the Division for Sustainable Development that functions as the CSD secretariat. The CSD meets once a year at the UN Headquarters in New York, usually in April or May. Usually the CSD decides by consensus, the main players being the EU and the G77, while the participation of the United States is taking place on a rather low level. Keywords: Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD); DESA; Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC); UNCED