List of Environment Conventions and Protocols

List of Environment Conventions & Protocols

Environmental conventions act as procedures and safeguards for the environment. To safeguard various environmental components, there are numerous norms and agreements. One of the top issues for a range of corporations is the environment. The United Nations, established in 1945 during World War II, oversaw several international activities that required transnational coordination and cooperation. As the UN’s authorized institution for environmental concerns and policy, the United Nations Environment Protocol (UNEP) handles these issues and policies. The Article on “List of Environment Conventions & Protocols” at one place will certainly help the candidates to get this section at one place.

List of Environment Conventions & Protocols Overview 

One of the most essential topics for the UPSC IAS exam is environmental conventions and protocols. It covers a sizeable portion of the General Studies Paper 3  under UPSC Syllabus’s Environment subject as well as important current events on a national and international scale for the UPSC prelims. Check all the List of Environment Conventions & Protocols Overview below in the table:

List of Important Environmental Conventions and Protocols Details

The environment is protected by international environmental accords and protocols. The different components of the environment are protected by a number of rules and conventions. An official agreement between nations known as a convention is often the result of talks mediated by an international organization. One method for altering a convention is to use a protocol. The original convention’s revisions are not needed to be followed by all the states that ratified it. The detailed List of Important Environmental Conventions and Protocols have been discussed below.

Ramsar Convention 

• World Wetland Day is celebrated on 2nd February every year.
• India became the signatory of the Ramsar Convention on February 1st, 1982.
• Ramsar Sites in India as of January 2023 includes has 75 wetlands across the country covering an area of 13,26,677 ha.
• At present, Loktak Lake of Manipur and Keoladeo National Park of Rajasthan are the only two wetlands from India to be placed in the Montreux Record.
• On 75th Independence Day, in August 2022, 11 New Ramsar Sites in India has been added to the list. Of the 11 Latest Ramsar Sites in India, 4 are in Tamil Nadu, and 3 in Odisha. 2 Newly Added Ramsar Sites in India are located in Jammu & Kashmir and 1 each in MP and Maharashtra.

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna and flora (CITES)

An international convention called the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) governs and supervises the worldwide trade in threatened and endangered plant and animal species. By limiting the import, export, and re-export of specific species, as well as the export of their goods and derivatives, the agreement seeks to ensure that the international trade of wild animals and plants does not endanger their survival.

• CITES was ratified in 1975 after being signed in Washington, D.C.
• At present 184 member nations, including India, have legal obligations under it.
• India has been a CITES member since 1976.
• The CITES Secretariat, which is situated in Geneva, Switzerland, is operated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
• The highest decision-making body for CITES is the Conference of the Parties (COP), which consists of all Parties to the Convention.
• CITES is an agreement that must be binding on all the Parties, although national laws are still in effect.

Bonn Convention

The Bonn Convention, commonly known as the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) or the Convention on Migratory Species, is one of the Environmental Conventions. It was ratified on November 1, 1983, after being signed on November 6, 1979. The only international agreement that protects migratory species, habitats, and migration routes is the Bonn Convention. As a United Nations environmental convention, the CMS offers a global framework for the protection and sustainable use of migratory animals and their ecosystems.

• In order to build the legal basis for internationally coordinated conservation efforts across a migratory range, CMS brings together the Range States, or the States through which migratory animals pass.
• West Germany’s Bonn serves as the convention’s headquarter.
• A total of 173 migratory species have been protected under it.
• The conventions at present has 133 parties as its member.
• India has been a signatory to the Bonn Convention since 1983. Bar-headed Geese and Amur Falcons are two notable migratory species in India.

Vienna Convention

One of the environmental conventions is the Vienna Convention, which was adopted in 1985 and came into effect in 1988. It serves as a framework for global efforts to safeguard the ozone layer, but it is devoid of legally binding targets for reducing the use of CFCs. The ozone layer over the planet is protected by the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and its Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.

• On June 19, 1991, India ratified the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer.

Montreal Protocol

The treaty became operative on January 1, 1989, after it was made available for signature on September 16, 1987. The first conference was held in Helsinki in May 1989. It has now gone through seven modifications, taking place in 1990 in London, 1991 in Nairobi, 1992 in Copenhagen, 1993 in Bangkok, 1995 in Vienna, 1997 in Montreal, and 1999 in Beijing.

One of the environmental conventions regulating substances that deplete the ozone layer is the Montreal Protocol. Its goal was to lessen ozone-depleting substance production and consumption in order to decrease the amount of these substances in the atmosphere and safeguard the earth’s thin ozone layer.

Basel Convention

The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal was adopted on March 22, 1989, in Basel, Switzerland, in response to a public outcry that followed the discovery of toxic waste imports in the 1980s in Africa and other developing regions of the world.

• One of the environmental conventions that went into effect in 1992 is the Basel Convention.
• The Basel Convention aims to safeguard the environment and human health from the harmful impacts of hazardous wastes.
• Its field of use includes two categories of wastes that are classified as “other wastes,” as well as a large variety of wastes that are classified as “hazardous wastes” based on their origin, composition, and/or characteristics.

Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

One of the environmental conventions, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), came into effect on December 29, 1993. It is a legal document that 196 nations have ratified. Its three main goals are:

• 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 United States is the only UN member state that has not ratified the Convention. Two other agreements are the Nagoya Protocol and the Cartagena Protocol.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

The UNFCC is a global environmental agreement that addresses climate change. At the UN (CED) Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992, agreements were negotiated and agreed. Headquartered in Bonn; came into effect on March 21, 1994. At present it has 198 parties.

The objective is to keep the concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere below a point where adverse human interference with the climate system is avoided. It did not initially impose any legally binding restrictions on national GHG emissions and lacked any enforcement mechanisms.

• The Kyoto Protocol was negotiated using this strategy in 1997.
• The COP is in charge of the UNFCCC Climate-Tech Centre Network, which acts as the group’s operational arm. It promotes the transfer of technologies for low-carbon and climate-resilient growth.

Rio Summit

One of the environmental conventions is the Rio Summit, sometimes referred to as the Earth Summit or the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). From June 3–14, 1992, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, hosted it. At this worldwide conference honoring the 20th anniversary of the first Human Environment Conference in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1972, a significant effort was made to concentrate on the consequences of human socioeconomic activities on the environment.

Attendees included government officials, diplomats, scientists, journalists, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from 179 different nations. In parallel, a historically large gathering of NGO representatives congregated in Rio de Janeiro for a “Global Forum” of NGOs where they discussed their forecasts for the future of the planet’s ecology and socioeconomic development.

United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)

One of the environmental conventions, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), was ratified in 1994. The first legally enforceable agreement establishes a link between environmental protection, development, and sustainable land management. The drylands, which are made up of arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid regions and are home to some of the most vulnerable ecosystems and inhabitants, are the main emphasis of the Convention.

Parties to the Convention meet in Conferences of the Parties (COPs) every two years as well as in technical meetings throughout the year to promote the Convention’s goals and make strides in its implementation. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification’s (UNCCD) Conference of Parties (COP 14) held its fourteenth session in New Delhi, India, from September 2 to September 13.

Kyoto Protocol

One of the environmental conventions, the Kyoto Protocol, was ratified on 11 December 1997 and went into effect on 16 February 2005. The Kyoto Protocol has 192 Parties as of right now. The Kyoto Protocol makes the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change operative by requiring industrialized nations and economies in transition to set and meet their own individual targets for limiting and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Simply put, the Convention requires that these countries create policies and mitigating measures and provide recurring reports.

Rotterdam Convention

The Rotterdam Convention is one of the environmental conventions. It was ratified on February 24, 2004, and it was initially adopted on September 10, 1998, in Rotterdam, Netherlands, during a Conference of Plenipotentiaries. The Convention seeks to protect human health and the environment from possible harm by promoting shared responsibility and teamwork among Parties in the worldwide trade of specific hazardous substances and to facilitate information exchange regarding these dangerous substances’ properties in order to help ensure their responsible use through establishing a national decision-making procedure for their import and export, as well as through promoting the objectives of the Convention globally.

Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety

One of the environmental conventions on biosafety is the Cartagena Protocol. It was enacted on September 11, 2003, after being adopted on January 29th, 2000. It is an international agreement that attempts to ensure the secure handling, movement, and use of living modified organisms (LMOs) produced by modern biotechnology that may have negative consequences on biological variety while also taking dangers to human health into account.

Stockholm Convention

The Conference of the Plenipotentiaries in Stockholm adopted the Stockholm Convention, one of the environmental conventions, on May 22, 2001. It went into effect on May 17, 2004. A global agreement known as the Stockholm Convention was made to protect the environment and public health from persistent organic pollutants (POPs). POPs are substances that accumulate in the fatty tissue of living things, linger unmodified in the environment for extended periods of time, and are bad for both people and wildlife.

UN-REDD

One of the environmental conventions is the United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD). It is the UN platform for knowledge and advice on forest-based responses to the climate problem. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) all contribute to UN-REDD, which was established in 2008.

REDD+

Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) developed the REDD+ global warming mitigation approach. REDD+ targets forest conservation, sustainable management, and the enhancement of forest carbon reserves in addition to combating deforestation and forest degradation. The framework, also known as the Warsaw Framework for REDD+ (WFR), provided extensive methodological and financial recommendations for putting REDD+ projects into action. It was formally accepted at COP 19 in Warsaw in December 2013. Additionally, Article 5 of the Paris Agreement acknowledges REDD+.

Nagoya Protocol

On October 29, 2010, in Nagoya, Japan, the Nagoya Protocol, one of the Environmental Conventions on ABS, was adopted. 90 days later, on October 12, 2014, the fifty-first ratification instrument was deposited. A supplemental accord to the Convention on Biological Diversity is the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (ABS).

It provides a clear legal framework for the effective achievement of one of the three objectives of the CBD: the equitable and fair distribution of gains from the use of genetic resources.

Minamata Convention

One of the environmental conventions, the Minamata Convention, was adopted in 2013 and went into effect in 2017. An international treaty known as the Minamata Convention on Mercury was created to protect both the environment and human health from mercury’s damaging effects.

This convention calls for the elimination or reduction of mercury use in various products and procedures, the prohibition of new mercury mines, the phase-out of existing ones, control measures for air emissions and releases to land and water, and regulation of the unofficial artisanal and small-scale gold mining sector. The Convention deals with the immediate storage of mercury, final waste disposal, mercury-contaminated environments, and health issues.

Kigali Amendment

The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, which asks for the phase-down of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), was adopted during the 28th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol in Kigali, Rwanda, in October 2016. One of the environmental conventions, the Kigali Amendment, mandates that parties to the Montreal Protocol gradually cut back on their consumption and production of hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs.

Although HFCs do not affect the stratospheric ozone layer, their high global warming potential of between 12 and 14,000 causes climate change. India will complete the phase-down of HFCs in 4 stages beginning in 2032, with reductions of 10% in 2032, 20% in 2037, 30% in 2042, and 85% in 2047.

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