Thirty six years ago, on this day, May 16th, 1990,
The UN Economic Commission for Europe held a large conference on Sustainable Development in Bergen, Norway. This was intended as a regional follow-up to the WCED report. The Ministerial Session of the conference was attended by 300 delegates from thirty-four governments.
Page 39 Paterson, M (1996)
http://unfccc.int/resource/ccsites/senegal/fact/fs220.htm
Bergen Declaration (ECE), 16 May 1990
“In order to achieve sustainable development policies must be based on the Precautionary Principle. Environmental measures must anticipate, prevent and attack the causes of environmental degradation. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to prevent environmental degradation.”
http://www.uow.edu.au/~sharonb/STS300/science/regulation/articles/artprinciple2.html
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly xxxppm. As of 2026 it is 4xxppm, but check here for daily measures.
The broader context was that international agreements around environmental issues are pretty hard to find. However, at this period, there had been the success of the Montreal Protocol on CFCs. And so there was still hope that there could be effective, if not necessarily binding, international agreements on x and y and z.
The specific context was that all the cards were in the air because the Soviet Union was in the process of disintegrating. The Berlin Wall had come down. Elections were being held in former satellite countries and Germany was on the way to reunification. By this time, 1990 it was clear that there was going to be a negotiating process for climate treaty, and that there would be a Rio Earth Summit in 1992, 20 years on from the Stockholm conference.
What I think we can learn from this. It could, perhaps, have been slightly different…
What happened next. The US prevented any meaningful text in the climate treaty, by threatening to boycott the whole show if there were targets and timetables for emissions reductions by rich countries in the text.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
Also on this day:
May 16, 1972 – “Carbon and the Biosphere” symposium
May 16, 1973 Energy and how we live. UNESCO seminar at Flinders – All Our Yesterdays
May 16, 2005 – Anthony Albanese says critical action on #climate being delayed by 20 years… #auspol
May 16, 2006 – UK Prime Minister Tony Blair goes nuclear…
May 16, 2005 – Anthony Albanese, eco-warrior…
May 16 – Interview with Rosie, about zero population growth, zero climate progress, etc…