My Science School

In principle, only sovereign states can become UN members. But, India gained UN membership before its independence. India is one among the original members of the United Nations and signed the Declaration of the United Nations in 1944 at Washington DC.

India was not the only member to gain membership before independence. Belarus, the Philippines, and Ukraine too got membership similarly.

Though India, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia were all British colonies, they were given independent seats in the United Nations General Assembly. It was Sir Arcot Ramaswamy Mudaliar, who signed the UN Charter on behalf of India during the San Francisco Conference on 26 June, 1945.

 

Picture Credit : Google

Greta Thunberg was a name that filled the newspaper columns last year. Along with a lot of other things, the young climate activist from Sweden is famous for her UN speech.

Greta first became famous when she was 15. Instead of attending school, she protested outside the Swedish parliament holding a placard that said ‘school strike for climate change’ for taking stronger actions against climate change.

Other students soon joined her movement and organized a school strike named ‘Fridays for Future’. This event went international after she participated in the 2018 UN Climate Change Conference.

Greta suddenly rose to world fame when she was featured by Time magazine. Time named her ‘next generation leader’. In 2019, she addressed the UN Climate Action Summit. Greta Thunberg was also nominated for the Noble peace Prize last year.

 

Picture Credit : Google

‘A race we can win. A race we must win.’ This was the theme for the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit. The summit aimed at improving climate action resolved to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases to prevent the global temperature from rising more than 1.5 degree Celsius.

A global climate strike was held to pressurize the global leaders into action. Also known as the ‘Global Week for Future’, it was a series of international strikes and protests that demanded action for climate change. The summit took place in September.

However, some countries did not agree to the new proposal. China did not increase its Paris Agreement commitments. India did not agree to reduce its use of coal. US did not even speak in the conference.

 

Picture Credit : Google

The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (UNCHE), also known as the Stockholm Conference of 1972 is one of the first major international conferences on environment.

After serious discussions about factors that affect the environment like population growth, and advancing technology, the UN came up with the Declaration on the Human Environment, and the Action Plan for Human Environment.

The action plan contained 109 specific recommendations aimed at achieving its goals. The conference presented environment as a human right. Every human has the right to clean and healthy environment. It talked about the responsibility of humans to manage wildlife and the ecosystem.

 

Picture Credit : Google

The United Nations held an international convention in 2002 at Johannesburg, South Africa. The World Summit on Sustainable Development was however widely criticized by many environmental groups.

They said that the summit did not produce any productive international agreements; rather it tried to create new timetables for fulfilling Agenda 21 from the Rio Conference, and that took 10 years after its introduction.         

However, the World Summit did make an agreement to restore the world’s depleted fisheries and implemented an action plan. The Johannesburg Declaration was the major outcome of the summit. The declaration was based on the declarations of the Stockholm Conference of 1972 and Earth Summit of 1992.

 

Picture Credit : Google

In December, 2015, global leaders assembled in Paris to come out with effective solutions regarding climate change. Reducing the emission of gases that major decision taken during the event. This in short sums up the Paris Agreement.

You might already know that the global temperature is increasing. This is due to the release of greenhouse gases, like methane. The phenomenon of global temperature increase is known as global warming.

The Paris Agreement, also known as COP21 was designed to curb the release of greenhouse gases to levels that would prevent global temperatures from increasing not more than 2 degree Celsius. 197 countries signed the agreement and it came into effect by November, 2016.

 

Picture Credit : Google

Some of the African countries are constantly in the headlines due to the effects of severe drought and famine. We all know the harmful effects of cutting down forests, the lungs of the Earth. Desertification of the Earth would lead to a lot of environmental damage including the loss of the top layer of fertile soil, and drought.

The United Nations has come up with a long- term strategy to deal with the problem of desertification and cutting down the effects of drought. It held a convention to combat desertification in those countries experiencing serious drought and/or desertification in Africa. This strategy was drafted in 1994 and was signed in 1995. This was the result of the direct recommendation of Agenda that we discussed earlier.

To publicise the programme, the year 2006 was declared as the ‘International Year of Deserts and Desertification’.

 

Picture Credit : Google

In 1997, a second major environmental conference led by the UN happened in Kyoto, Japan. The plan was to save the environment by reducing the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The UN wanted the industrialized nations to significantly reduce their carbon dioxide emissions.

The Protocol was linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. A protocol is an official procedure or a set of rules that the members are supposed to abide by.

After long and difficult negotiations, the developed countries agreed to reduce their emissions by five per cent from the levels of 1990. However, many environmentalists suggested that the emissions had to be reduced at least by 50 per cent.

Though the plan seemed splendid, it was not successful. The Kyoto Protocol was not a treaty and therefore, it was not mandatory to sign it. Moreover, USA, the world’s largest polluter, refused to accept the Protocol.

 

Picture Credit : Google

In 1983, the UN General Assembly launched a World Commission on Environment and Development. This Commission was assigned to draft a report about environment and climate change along with strategies for sustainable development.

When the Commission reported back to the General Assembly in 1987, it suggested to organize a major worldwide conference on the environment.

The UN Conference on Environment and Development, also known as the Earth Summit was the result of this. 178 representatives participated in the Summit that was organized in Brazil in 1992. However, no enforcements were made during the summit.

 

Picture Credit : Google

We already know about the United Nation Environment Programme (UNEP) that came into effect in 1972. Eleven years after that, the UN proposed that development should not exploit the natural resources. This idea of sustainable development then became the key plank of all of UN’s development programmes.

The UN is also working to make the whole world accept the model of sustainable development. It was presented during the Earth Summit that was conducted in Rio de Janeiro in1992.

Agenda 21 of the Earth Summit is an action plan to achieve sustainable development and concerns with individual governments across the world that operates at local, national and global levels.

 

Picture Credit : Google

‘Perhaps the single most successful international agreement to date has been the Montreal Protocol.’ Kofi Annan was not wrong to say this.

The Montreal Protocol is indeed a success story. The ozone hole in Antarctica is slowly recovering and is expected to reach the 1980 levels between 2050 and 2070.

The Montreal Protocol phases down both the production and use of nearly a hundred harmful chemicals. This is done in several steps. The developed and developing countries follow a different timetable in the process.

Without this treaty, ozone layer depletion would have increased at least by ten times by 2050 in comparison with the current levels. This treaty also aids the global climate system.

 

Picture Credit : Google

By the 1990, people around the world became aware of the problem of the ozone layer. Human activity has damaged the ozone layer that protects us from the harmful UV radiations. The UN looked into this problem and in response, designed the Montreal Protocol.

The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone layer is an international treaty to protect the ozone layer. The treaty asked nations to phase out the production of many substances that would deplete the ozone layer.

The UN got the major industrialized nations to sign the treaty. The treaty was adopted in September, 1987 and came into force in September, 1989.

 

Picture Credit : Google

The UN has faced and mediated many threats to the world including nuclear war. The organisation is now trying hard to deal with something that is more complex and worrying. It is trying to deal with something that has put all living creatures to the risk of mass destruction and that is climate change.

We have been warned that human activity is rapidly changing the Earth and the environment since the mid-1980s. Pure water and air has increasingly become a rarity.

The ozone layer has been damaged due to the release of harmful substances like CFCs from appliances like air conditioners and refrigerators. The waste from factories and households has polluted the air, water and soil.

Millions of acres of rainforests have been irreplaceably cut down. This situation has forced the UN into actions against climate change.

 

Picture Credit : Google