Sustainable Development and

International Contribution

What are International Environmental

Conventions

A legally binding agreement to take joint

action to address or combat a worldwide
environmental problem is known as an
international environmental convention. It
takes considerable effort for sovereign
states with disparate interests to come to
an agreement to take such action.

To address international environmental

challenges at the global and regional
levels, these agreements have multiplied in
recent decades.

What is the difference between

Environmental Conference, conventions
and protocols?
The difference between Conferences,
Conventions and Protocols is listed in the
table below.
Conferences
Conventions
Protocols
A Conference is a kind of formal
consultation or a type of negotiation, it
can be on any theme. In a conference, the
main bodies are set up to hold any
additional discussions that may be
necessary on the general topic for which
the conference is organized.
A convention is a meeting or gathering
when a commonly accepted principle is
formulated or discussed. It is a
framework where the parties choose the
fundamental rules/guidelines.
A Protocol to the convention is an
agreement that diplomatic negotiators
make and sign that serves as the
foundation for a final convention where
the parties specify particular goals or legal
duties. Typically, a protocol is called
among the nations that were signatories of
the original convention when it was
signed and accepted when a significant
provision is to be integrated into the laws
of the convention.
• Ramsar Convention
• Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of wild
fauna and flora (CITES)
• Bonn Convention
• Vienna Convention
• Montreal Protocol
• Basel Convention
• Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD)
• United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC)
• Rio Summit
• United Nations Convention to
Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
• Kyoto Protocol
• Rotterdam Convention
• Cartagena Protocol on
Biosafety
• Stockholm Convention
 • UN-REDD
• REDD+
• Nagoya Protocol
• Minamata Convention
• Kigali Amendment

Ramsar Convention
• Ramsar Convention is one of
the Environmental Conventions that
was signed in 1971 at Ramsar, Iran.
• India signed the Ramsar
Convention on February 1st, 1982.
• It is also known as the
Convention on Wetlands.
• As of August 2022, there are a
total of 75 Ramsar Sites in India.
Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species of wild fauna and
flora (CITES)
• The Convention on
International Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
(CITES) is an international treaty that
regulates and controls the
international trade of endangered and
threatened species of plants and
animals.
• The convention aims to ensure
that the international trade of wild
animals and plants does not threaten
their survival by regulating the
import, export, and re-export of
certain species, as well as their
products and derivatives.
• CITES was signed in
Washington D.C. in 1973 and entered
into force in 1975.
• It is legally binding on the
signatory countries, which currently
number over 180, including India.
• Since 1976, India has been a
CITES member.
• India joined the 74th CITES
 Standing Committee conference, which
was held in Lyon, France, from March
7 to March 11. During the summit,
India spoke multiple times, outlining
its government's actions and
encouraging global action.
Bonn Convention
• Bonn Convention is one of the
Environmental Conventions, also
known as the Convention on the
Conservation of Migratory Species of
Wild Animals or Convention on
Migratory Species (CMS).
• It was signed on 6 November
1979 and came into force on 1
November 1983.
• Bonn Convention is the only
global convention that conserves
migratory species, habitats, and
migration routes.
• The CMS provides a global
platform for the preservation and
sustainable use of migratory animals
and their habitats as a United Nations
environmental treaty.
 • CMS assembles the Range
States or the States through which
migratory animals pass and
establishes the legislative framework
for globally coordinated conservation
efforts across a migratory range.
• The headquarters of the Bonn
convention is located in Bonn, West
Germany.
• Since 1983, India has been a
part of the Bonn Convention. Amur
Falcons and Bar-headed Geese are
among the significant migratory
species in India.
Vienna Convention
• The Vienna Convention is one
of the Environmental Conventions,
adopted in 1985 and entered into force
in 1988.
• It acts as a framework for
international efforts to protect the
ozone layer but does not include
legally binding reduction goals for
using CFCs.
• The Vienna Convention for the
 Protection of the Ozone Layer and its
Montreal Protocol on Substances that
Deplete the Ozone Layer is dedicated
to protecting the earth’s ozone layer.
• India became a Party to the
Vienna Convention for the Protection
of Ozone Layer on 19 June 1991.
Montreal Protocol
• The treaty was opened for
signature on September 16, 1987, and
entered into force on January 1, 1989,
followed by the first meeting in
Helsinki in May 1989. Since then, it
has undergone seven revisions in 1990
(London), 1991 (Nairobi), 1992
(Copenhagen), 1993 (Bangkok), 1995
(Vienna), 1997 (Montreal), and 1999
(Beijing).
• The Montreal Protocol is one of
the Environmental Conventions on
Substances that Deplete the Ozone
Layer. It was designed to reduce the
production and consumption of
ozone-depleting substances to reduce
their abundance in the atmosphere,
 thereby protecting the earth’s fragile
ozone Layer.
Basel Convention
• In response to a public outcry
following the discovery of toxic waste
imports in the 1980s in Africa and
other developing regions of the world,
the Basel Convention on the Control of
Transboundary Movements of
Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal
was adopted on March 22, 1989, by
the Conference of Plenipotentiaries in
Basel, Switzerland.
• Basel Convention is one of the
Environmental Conventions that came
into force in 1992.
• The objective of the Basel
Convention is to protect human health
and the environment against the
adverse effects of hazardous wastes.
• Its scope of application covers
a wide range of wastes defined as
“hazardous wastes” based on their
origin and/or composition and their
characteristics, as well as two types of
 wastes defined as “other wastes” –
household waste and incinerator ash.
Convention on Biological Diversity
(CBD)
• The Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD) is one of the
Environmental Conventions that
entered into force on December 29
1993. It is a legal instrument which is
signed by 196 countries.
• It has 3 main objectives:
• The conservation of biological
diversity
• The sustainable use of the
components of biological diversity
• The fair and equitable sharing
of the benefits arising out of the
utilisation of genetic resources
• The only UN member state that
has not ratified the Convention is the
United States. The Nagoya Protocol
and the Cartagena Protocol are two
supplementary agreements.
United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
• UNFCCC, United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate
Change, is one of the Environmental
Conventions.
• The UN organisation tasked
with supporting the global response to
the problem of climate change is the
UNFCCC secretariat (UN Climate
Change).
• United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change is
referred to as UNFCCC.
• The Convention, with 198
Parties and nearly universal
membership, is the governing
document of the 2015 Paris Accord
(COP 21).
• The main objective of the Paris
Agreement is to keep the average
global temperature rise this century to
1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-
industrial levels.
• A deal that came out of the
UNFCCC is the Kyoto Protocol, which
was signed in 1997.
• The three UNFCCC agreements
have as their ultimate aim the
prevention of harmful human
interference with the climate system
and the stabilisation of greenhouse
gas concentrations in the atmosphere
at a level that would allow for
sustainable development.
• The UNFCCC secretariat was
established in Geneva in 1992 after
ratification by states. Since 1996, the
Secretariat has been headquartered in
Bonn, Germany.
• The United Nations Climate
Change Conference, often known as
COP 26, occurred in Glasgow,
Scotland, from October 31 to
November 12, 2021. Italy and the
United Kingdom organised it.
• The 27th Conference of the
Parties of the UNFCCC (COP 27) is
scheduled to be held from 6 November
2022 to 18 November 2022 in Egypt
Sharm El-Sheikh.
Rio Summit
• Rio Summit is one of the
Environmental Conventions, also
known as the United Nations
Conference on Environment and
Development (UNCED) or ‘Earth
Summit.
• It was held in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, from 3-14 June 1992.
• A massive effort was made to
focus on the effects of human socio-
economic activities on the
environment at this international
conference, commemorating the 20th
anniversary of the first Human
Environment Conference in Stockholm,
Sweden, in 1972.
• Political leaders, diplomats,
scientists, media representatives, and
non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) from 179 countries attended.
• At the same time, an
unprecedented number of NGO
representatives gathered in Rio de
 Janeiro for a “Global Forum” of
NGOs, where they shared their
predictions for the planet's future
regarding the environment and socio-
economic development.
United Nations Convention to Combat
Desertification (UNCCD)
• The United Nations Convention
to Combat Desertification (UNCCD),
one of the Environmental Conventions,
was adopted in 1994.
• The first internationally binding
agreement connects sustainable land
management to development and the
environment.
• The Convention focuses
primarily on the drylands, composed
of arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid
regions and is home to some of the
most vulnerable ecosystems and
populations.
• To advance the objectives of
the Convention and make progress in
its implementation, Parties to the
Convention meet in Conferences of
 the Parties (COPs) every two years as
well as in technical meetings
throughout the year.
• The Conference of Parties
(COP 14) to the United Nations
Convention to Combat Desertification
(UNCCD) held its fourteenth session
from September 2 to September 13 in
New Delhi, India.
Kyoto Protocol
• The Kyoto Protocol, one of the
Environmental Conventions, was
adopted on 11 December 1997 and
entered into force on 16 February
2005. Currently, there are 192 Parties
to the Kyoto Protocol.
• The Kyoto Protocol
operationalises the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate
Change by committing industrialized
countries and economies in transition
to limit and reduce greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions by agreed individual
targets.
• The Convention simply
 requests that these nations develop
policies and measures for mitigation
and submit periodic reports.
Rotterdam Convention
• The Rotterdam Convention is
one of the environmental conventions.
• It was ratified on 24 February
2004 and was adopted on 10
September 1998 at a Conference of
Plenipotentiaries in Rotterdam,
Netherlands.
• The Convention's goals are: to
encourage shared responsibility and
cooperative efforts among Parties in
the international trade of certain
hazardous chemicals to protect human
health and the environment from
potential harm.
• To contribute to the
environmentally sound use of those
hazardous chemicals by facilitating
information exchange about their
characteristics.
• To provide for a national
decision-making process on their
 import and export; and by
disseminating information about the
Convention's goals worldwide.
Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety
• Cartagena Protocol is one of
the Environmental Conventions on
Biosafety. It was adopted on January
29th, 2000, and went into effect on
September 11th, 2003.
• It is an international
agreement which aims to ensure the
safe handling, transportation, and use
of living-modified organisms (LMOs)
resulting from contemporary
biotechnology that may have adverse
effects on biological diversity while
also taking risks to human health into
account.
Stockholm Convention
• The Stockholm Convention, one
of the Environmental Conventions, was
adopted by the Conference of the
Plenipotentiaries (Stockholm, 22 May
2001) and entered into force on 17
May 2004.
 • The Stockholm Convention is a
global treaty to safeguard the
environment and human health from
persistent organic pollutants (POPs).
• POPs are compounds that
build up in living creatures’ fatty
tissue, persist in the environment
unaltered for long periods, and are
harmful to people and wildlife.
UN-REDD
• The United Nations
Collaborative Programme on
Reducing Emissions from
Deforestation and Forest Degradation
in Developing Countries (UN-REDD)
is one of the Environmental
Conventions. It is the UN knowledge
and advisory platform on forest
solutions to the climate crisis.
• UN-REDD was launched in
2008 and leverages the technical
expertise of food and convening power
of the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP), and
 Food and Agriculture Organization of
the United Nations (FAO).
REDD+
• A strategy for reducing global
warming called REDD+ was created
by parties to the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC).
• Beyond just addressing
deforestation and forest degradation,
REDD+ also addresses forest
conservation, sustainable forest
management, and the improvement of
forest carbon stores.
• The framework, also known as
the Warsaw Framework for REDD+
(WFR), was officially endorsed at COP
19 in Warsaw in December 2013 and
offered comprehensive methodological
and financial advice for implementing
REDD+ initiatives. REDD+ is also
recognized in Article 5 of the Paris
Agreement.
Nagoya Protocol
• The Nagoya Protocol, one of
 the Environmental Conventions on
ABS, was adopted on October 29,
2010, in Nagoya, Japan. It occurred on
October 12, 2014, 90 days later, when
the fifty-first instrument of ratification
was deposited.
• The Nagoya Protocol on Access
to Genetic Resources and the Fair and
Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising
from their Utilization (ABS) to the
Convention on Biological Diversity is
a supplementary agreement to the
Convention on Biological Diversity.
• It offers a clear legal
framework for the efficient realization
of one of the three goals of the CBD:
the fair and equitable sharing of
benefits arising from the utilization of
genetic resources.
Minamata Convention
• The Minamata Convention is
one of the Environmental Conventions,
was adopted in 2013 and came into
force in 2017.
• The Minamata Convention on
 Mercury is an international agreement
to safeguard the environment and
human health from the harmful effects
of mercury.
• This convention includes a ban
on new mercury mines, the phase-out
of existing ones, the elimination or
reduction of mercury use in various
goods and procedures, control
measures for air emissions and
releases to land and water, and
regulation of the unofficial artisanal
and small-scale gold mining industry.
• The Convention addresses
mercury’s short-term storage, ultimate
waste disposal, mercury-contaminated
areas, and health concerns.
Kigali Amendment
• The 28th Meeting of the Parties
to the Montreal Protocol, held in
Kigali, Rwanda, in October 2016, saw
the adoption of the Kigali Amendment
to the Montreal Protocol on
Substances that Deplete the Ozone
Layer, which calls for the phase-down
of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).
• The Kigali Amendment is one
of the Environmental Conventions
requiring parties to the Montreal
Protocol to gradually reduce their
consumption and production of
hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs.
• Although HFCs do not destroy
the ozone layer in the stratosphere,
they have a high global warming
potential of between 12 and 14,000,
which harms the climate.
• From 2032 onward, India will
finish phasing down HFCs in 4 stages,
with a cumulative reduction of 10% in
2032, 20% in 2037, 30% in 2042, and
85% in 2047.
• After the necessary consultation
with all industry stakeholders, a
national strategy for the phase-down of
hydrofluorocarbons by the phase-down
timetable appropriate for India will be
prepared by 2023.
• By the middle of 2024, the
Ozone Depleting Substances
(Regulation and Control) Rules will
have changed to enable the proper
regulation of hydrofluorocarbon
production and consumption to achieve
Kigali Amendment compliance.