THE SUMMER LINGERS

That we still seek the Stockholm declaration’s ideals only shows how we need to up our game to prevent the planet’s environmental crisis

- RICHARD MAHAPATRA

BETWEEN JUNE 5 and June 16, 1972, countries across the world shed a bit of their sovereignty. The aim was to create a common governance structure for the planet’s environment and natural resources. The occasion was the UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, the first such worldwide convergence on planetary environment, with the theme “Only One Earth”. When the participating 122 countries—70 of them developing and poor countries—adopted the Stockholm Declaration on June 16, they essentially committed to 26 principles and an action plan that set in a multilateral environmental regime.

One of the overarching principles was that sovereignty should be subject to not causing harm to the environment of other countries as well. This was the first globally subscribed document that recognised the “interconnections between development, poverty and the environment.” These principles were celebrated as a harbinger of “new behaviour and responsibility which must govern their relationship in the environmental era”. To put it another way, the planet’s environment and natural resources became a common resource with countries resetting their relationship with nature— from sovereignty over resources to shared responsibility for their sustainable uses. The three dimensions of this conference were: countries agreeing not to “harm each other’s environment or the areas beyond national jurisdiction”; an action plan to study the threat to Earth’s environment; and establishment of an international body called the UN Environment programme (UNEP) to bring in cooperation among countries.