United Nations conference on environment and development was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992.

● It is also called the Earth Summit or the Rio Summit.

● It was attended by 178, thousands of NGOs and many multinational corporations.

● It was noticed in this submit that the rich and the developed countries of the first world which are usually referred to as the 'Global North' were pursuing a different environmental agenda than the poor and the developing countries of the Third world which was called the 'Global South'.

● The northern states were concerned with ozone depletion and global warming.

● The southern states were concerned to address the relationship between economic, development and environmental management.

● It reduced the convention ceiling with climate change, forestry, biodiversity and recommended a list of development practices called agenda 21.

● However, it was left unresolved due to many differences and difficulties.

● There was a consensus on combining economic growth with ecological responsibility.

● This approach of development is known as sustainable development.

● Now the problem arose as to how to achieve sustainable development.

● According to some critics, agenda 21 was biased in favor of economic growth rather than ensuring ecological conservation.