Rio ratings revealed - prosperous countries have been slow to take action against greenhouse gas emissions

New Internationalist, Sept, 1999 by Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri

The General Assembly of the United Nations, meeting more than five years after the Rio Earth Summit, has found that the performance rating of governmental action for the environment is next to zero. The Framework Convention on Climate Change-opened for signatures in Rio to deal with the problem of global warming-has seen little action to set binding targets on controlling greenhouse-gas emissions by the developed North. The Biodiversity Convention-established to safeguard the world's threatened biodiversity-has not yet been signed by the US, the world's largest user of biodiversity resources and knowledge. Also the global action plan for environment, Agenda 21, is largely under-funded. The total global funding for the environment has actually declined after Rio.

Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri/Third World Network Features