Skip to main content.

Multilateral Environmental Agreements

The main method available under international law for countries to work together on global environmental issues is the multilateral environmental agreement (MEA). MEAs are agreements between states which may take the form of “soft-law”, setting out non-legally binding principles which parties will respect when considering actions which affect a particular environmental issue, or “hard-law” which specify legally-binding actions to be taken to work toward an environmental objective.

New Zealand’s key obligations under the agreements

The 1992 Earth Summit

Several important MEAs were entered into at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, or the “Earth Summit”), which was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Earth Summit produced five key documents on sustainable development issues.): two “hard law” – the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Framework Convention on Climate Change which New Zealand has signed and ratified (see below); and three “soft law” – the Rio Declaration, Agenda 21, and the Forest Principles which were adopted by consensus at Rio.

Rio Declaration on Environment and Development

The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development describes states’ obligations for promoting the principle of sustainable development. This principle involves managing resources in a way that provides for our needs in using those resources, as well as providing for their protection – both for their inherent value, and to preserve mankind’s future interests in them. The obligation to “conserve, protect and restore the health and integrity of the Earth's ecosystem” is framed in a way that recognises that states have differing abilities and methods to draw on when dealing with environmental problems.

The Declaration identifies 27 guiding principles on sustainable development, including:

  • intergenerational equity – that there should be equity between the rights and needs of the current generation and of generations to come
  • precautionary approach – that lack of full scientific certainty of the causes and effects of environmental damage should not be a reason for delaying action to prevent such damage
  • polluter pays – that polluters should bear the cost of pollution, and that the costs of environmental damage should be reflected in cost/benefit analyses of actions affecting the environment
  • responsibilities – that the world community has a common responsibility for protecting the global environment. However, countries that pollute more should do more for environmental protection than countries that pollute less.

Agenda 21

Agenda 21 is a plan for use by governments, local authorities and individuals to implement the principle of sustainable development contained in the Rio Declaration. This 40-chapter document has significant status as a consensus document adopted by about 180 countries. Some its main themes include:

  • reforming policies – for bringing together environmental and economic issues. It calls for environmental considerations to be built into policy-making from the start rather than being added as an afterthought
  • controlling wasteful consumption and production – Agenda 21 pinpoints the wasteful consumption and production associated with industrialisation and wealth acquisition as the most serious current cause of global degradation of the environment
  • improving technologies – promoting greater use of environmentally sound technologies that use resources more efficiently and generate minimal levels of waste
  • integrating trade and environment – to make environment and trade mutually supportive. This recognises that as trade can be adversely affected by the unjustifiable use of environmental concerns as technical barriers, so trade can adversely affect the environment if it leads to unsustainable production or unsustainable use of resources.

New Zealand’s legislation (Resource Management Act, Biosecurity Act, Local Government Act etc.) is largely in accord with the themes in Agenda 21. In our case, the action needed is to implement that legislation satisfactorily. From 1993 to 2001, New Zealand reported annually to the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) on the implementation of Agenda 21. These reports were prepared by the UNCED Implementation Officials Group, which consisted of representatives from twelve government departments with policy roles in implementing Agenda 21. The 2002 report to the CSD, Towards Sustainable Development in New Zealand, involved wider consultation as part of the preparations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

[The Commission of Sustainable Development (CSD) was also set up at UNCED to monitor the implementation of Agenda 21.]

Forest Principles

The Forest Principles address the management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests. One aspect of work pursuant to the Principles concerns the development of criteria and indicators for the sustainable management of forests. Since Rio, work on the Forest Principles has been advanced by an “Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Panel on Forests” (the IPF) and an Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (the IFF), both under the auspices of the CSD.

The 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development agreed on the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation.

Other key agreements

For a full list of New Zealand’s Multilateral Environmental Agreements see MEAs in force in New Zealand.

Last updated: 7 January 2008