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Agenda 21 is an action programme. It was partially based
on a series of specialized contributions from governments and international
bodies, including Caring for the Earth: a Strategy for Sustainable
Living (IUCN, UNEP and WWF 1991). Agenda 21 is now the most
significant and influential non-binding instrument in the environmental
field, serving as the blueprint for environmental management in most regions
of the world (see box).
| Agenda 21 |
- Agenda 21 lays a solid foundation for the promotion of
sustainable development in terms of social, economic and environmental
progress. Agenda 21 has 40 chapters, and its recommendations
are divided into four main areas:
- Social and economic issues such as international cooperation
to accelerate sustainable development, combating poverty, changing
consumption patterns, demographic dynamics and sustainability,
and protecting and promoting human health.
- Conservation and management of resources for development, such
as protection of the atmosphere, combating deforestation, combating
desertification and drought, promoting sustainable agriculture
and rural development, conservation of biological diversity, protection
of freshwater resources and the oceans, and the sound management
of toxic chemicals and hazardous wastes.
- Strengthening the role of major groups, including women, children
and youth, indigenous people and their communities, NGOs, local
authorities' initiatives in support of Agenda 21, workers
and their trade unions, business and industry, the scientific
and technological community, and farmers.
- Means of implementation, including financial resources and mechanisms,
transfer of environmentally sound technology, promoting education,
public awareness and training, international institutional arrangements,
international legal instruments and mechanisms, and information
for decision-making.
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The cost of implementing Agenda 21 in developing countries was
estimated by the Earth Summit secretariat to be about US$625 billion a
year, with the developing countries meeting 80 per cent, or US$500 billion,
of it. Developed countries were expected to foot the remaining 20 per
cent, or about US$125 billion annually, by meeting their long-established
official development assistance (ODA) target of 0.7 per cent of gross
national product (GNP).
Although UNCED was concerned with global approaches, an important outcome
was the adoption of many national and regional Agenda 21 programmes
for sustainable development. In the Southern African Development Community
(SADC) region, for example, the member states adopted the SADC Policy
and Strategy for Environment and Sustainable Development in 1996. The
European Union adopted the 5th Environmental Action Plan Towards Sustainability
(EU 1993).
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