From Rio 1992 to Rio 2012 and Beyond

Abstract

The 20th anniversary of the Journal of Environment and Development (JED) not coincidentally lines up with the anniversary of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio De Janeiro in 1992. The JED was launched as one of many thousands of initiatives during the preparatory phase of the Rio conference around the world encouraged by a cautious optimism that this event would help launch a new era of bringing economic development and care for the environment closer together. Coming 20 years after the 1972 Stockholm conference on the Human Environment it was hoped that the Rio conference of 1992 would be able to reap a peace dividend and profit from a greatly improved international political situation to focus on global environmental challenges. The cold-war years had receded into the history books and some of the North–South antagonism had softened after military regimes had given way to democratic systems in many large developing countries. World trade was expanding more rapidly again after a decade of economic stagnation in many parts of the world. This editorial looks back at the achievements of the Rio 1992 conference and highlights one of its perhaps most consequential failures: to launch a process that could find an appropriate balance between government regulation and faith in free markets and private sector initiatives to address environmental and development challenges in a comprehensive way. This would require an integration of trade rules and sustainable development objectives and a serious debate about raising financial resources for a global eco-services compensation system that does not primarily rely on fickle, voluntary, private sector investments into carbon-crediting systems. Rio plus 20 is an opportunity to review experience with 20 years of far-reaching reliance on free market solutions to public goods problems of global magnitude. It is a chance to learn important lessons that can guide the search for better policies to meet critical global Editorial