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21 Rev. Eur. Comp. & Int'l Envtl. L. 1 (2012)

handle is hein.journals/reel21 and id is 1 raw text is: RECIEL 21 (1) 2012. ISSN 0962 8797 Editorial Twenty years ago, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the 'Rio Conference' or the 'Earth Summit', brought together over 30,000 people from over 170 countries, including Heads of State from over 100 countries, as well as a wide variety of nongovernmental observers. Although UNCED was not an unequivocal success, and already showed signs of the tensions between devel- oped and developing countries that would persist for the years to come, it was undeniably a milestone in the development of modern international environmental law and governance. Two important multilateral trea- ties - the United Nations Framework Convention (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) - were adopted, and the foundation was laid for the adoption of the third 'Rio Convention': the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). In addition, the Rio Declaration, Agenda 21 and the Forest Principles provided key soft law aspects complementing the hard law treaties. From a paradig- matic view, the conference was important in that it sig- nified a shift from international environmental law to a law of sustainable development. Twenty years later, the situation looks quite different. A series of financial crises has cast environmental issues into the background of national and international political agendas, increasing the anxiety about the effects of environmental law and policy on economic growth. Optimism about tackling environmental prob- lems through multilateral negotiations has given way to scepticism, particularly following the Copenhagen climate change conference in 2009. Although the 2010 Nagoya Protocol to the CBD may have restored some faith in multilateralism, it is clear that the amount of new environmental treaties produced is no longer at the levels of the 198os and 1990s. Another major develop- ment has been the geopolitical power shift, with emerg- ing powers like China, India and Brazil taking on an increasingly important role internationally. It is against this changing background that the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), or 'Rio+20', will take place this summer in the same city as the conference twenty years ago. Rio+20's agenda is dominated by two major themes: 1 See, e.g., M. Pallemaerts, 'International Environmental Law from Stockholm to Rio: Back to the Future?', 1 Review of European Com- munity and International Environmental Law (1992), 254, at 264; P.H. Sand, 'International Environmental Law after Rio', 4:1 European Journal of International Law (1993), 337, at 378. the green economy and the institutional framework for sustainable development. Unlike its precursor, Rio+20 is not expected to mark a new era of international envi- ronmental lawmaking. Instead, its focus is on 'renewed' commitment as well as implementation of the exist- ing framework of international environmental law and governance. This issue of RECIEL contains several contributions by a range of well-known scholars and practitioners that highlight some of the challenges for international envi- ronmental governance in Rio and beyond. The articles provide an interesting crosscutting perspective of some of the issues that are dealt with - or that are conspicu- ously absent - in the discussions at Rio+20. The first article of this issue, by Pamela Chasek, draws attention to the preparatory stages of major environ- mental summits. In particular, she discusses the role of regional consultations in the run-up to the UNCSD. Chasek shows how consultations in each of the five UN regions have approached the major themes of Rio+20, including, but not limited to, the green economy and the institutional framework for sustainable develop- ment. She also indicates how the 'zero draft' agenda for Rio+20, released in January 2012, reflects regional con- vergence and divergence. Although she concludes that regional priorities are well-reflected in this draft, she also points to a lack of attention to regional environ- mental governance as such. In the second article, Joyeeta Gupta and Nadia Sanchez take up the ambitious challenge to assess whether inter- national environmental law and governance is ready for the future. They first show how international environ- mental law and governance so far has been fragmented and reactive, and how it may not be prepared to deal with long-term challenges. They argue that given the likely persistence of this fragmentation, it is necessary to institutionalize a rule of law, pointing to a process of constitutionalization as a way of achieving this. They conclude that the time is ripe to pursue this project at Rio+20. Klaus Bosselmann, Brendan Mackey and Peter Brown also argue that the current system of international 2 United Nations, 'The Future We Want' (Draft outcome document for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, 10 January 2012), found at <http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/content/ documents/370The%20Future%2OWe%2OWant%201 OJan%20clean. pdf>. @ 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Maiden, MA 02148, USA. 1

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