A Study On The Relationship Between China And The United Nations Conference On Environment And Development

Since1980s, environmental issues have been on the list of the agenda of the countries all over the world as non-traditional security issues and people’s understanding about environmental protection and economic and social development has undergone profound changes. Under such circumstances, the United Nations, as the world’s largest international organization, convened the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in June,1992. Five important documents were signed on the conference, including the "Rio Declaration on Environment and Development" and "Agenda21", which greatly promoted the sustainable development of human society and pushed the global environment and development forward to a new climax. This conference became an important landmark in the history of the human environmental protection and the second milestone after the United Nations Conference on Human Environment in1972. China, the world’s largest developing country, had played an important role in the preparations for and the process of the Conference, as well as in the follow-up actions, which had been widely recognized and praised by the international community. China’s initiatives and relevant principles on international cooperation on Environment and Development were adopted by the meeting. China reached a unified stance with the "Group of77" on relevant issues, which greatly promoted the fair and just development of international affairs. Meanwhile, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development made China recognize the deficiency and defects in the domestic environmental cause. Afterwards, China promoted the domestic development of environmental protection by improving the domestic environmental policy and formulating the "China Agenda21". At the same time, China conveyed international environmental cooperation in a wider range by the use of multi-level approaches.