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Why did the Un's first declaration on the human environment quote Chairman Mao?
Why is the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment called "the starting point of environmental protection in New China"?
Why was the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Sweden?
The twenty-sixth conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will be held in Glasgow, Uk.
From the first environmental conference of the United Nations in 1972 to today's climate conference, human beings have gone through nearly 50 years of re-breathing clean air and regaining the wealth of green mountains and rivers.
Today Chinese when we regard "ecology" as a civilization that can stand side by side with "spirit" and "matter", we should not forget the Human Environment Conference held in Stockholm, Sweden, 49 years ago.
It was from that conference that some experts who Chinese had a new understanding of the ecological environment still called the conference "the starting point of environmental protection in New China" and no longer regarded pollution as a capitalist problem.
The global roadmap for environmental protection also began with that conference.
In 1979, the United Nations convened the first World Climate Conference in Geneva, Switzerland. For the first time, climate change has been put on the agenda as an issue of concern to the international community. In 1991, the United Nations began multilateral international negotiations on the development of the Framework Convention on Climate Change.
I have spoken to two elderly Canadians who participated in organizing the Stockholm Conference. One is Mr. Maurice Strong, former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, and the other is Mr. Keynes, President of the World Correspondents Association of Canada. They all worked at the United Nations in the early 1970s and were the organizers of the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment. Strong was secretary-general of the General Assembly at the time, and Keynes was his assistant.
"In Stockholm's more than 700-year history, there has never been such a sight, the whole city is overcrowded, and even in the park there are many people who have set up tents and camped." Mr Keynes said.
From June 5 to 16, 1972, thousands of journalists and tens of thousands of experts and scholars from all over the world gathered in Stockholm. Time magazine reported at the time that these people were ambitious and "wanted to save the planet." For the first time, they proposed "We have only one Earth!" " slogan.
The Chinese government sent a large delegation to the meeting, which was the first time that China participated in a major international conference of the United Nations after the restoration of its legitimate seat in the United Nations. The Chinese government delegation was headed by Tang Ke, then vice minister of the Ministry of Combustion and Chemicals, and included Gu Ming, Qu Geping, Bi Jilong and Chen Haifeng.
Tang Ke, head of the Chinese delegation, spoke at the conference. (UN Photo)
Mr. Keynes recalled that it was during the Cold War, when the two major blocs of the United States and the Soviet Union were opposed, and Sweden, as a neutral country, wanted to borrow its identity to bring more countries together through the United Nations and pay more full attention to the increasingly serious environmental problems facing mankind. However, since the United Nations did not invite East Germany to participate, the Soviet Union had to boycott with the Warsaw Group. At this time, whether developing countries, especially China and India, two big countries, can participate becomes the key.
Strong said India's decision to participate was related to a report he had previously produced. The report, titled The Founex Report, which for the first time linked poverty to environmental issues, was the same as India's basic stance on environmental issues at the time, so Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi decided to attend, and she also emphasized the relationship between poverty alleviation and ecological governance in her speech at the conference.
Keynes said he and Strong learned in contacts with Chinese government representatives during the run-up to the meeting. At that time, due to the serious pollution incident in Japan, and china also had some ecological pollution problems, the Chinese central government began to pay attention to this problem. Premier Zhou Enlai approved China's participation in the conference and hoped to understand the international developments and learn from foreign advanced experiences through the conference, so as to start China's environmental governance as soon as possible. At the same time, China, which has just regained its legitimate seat in the United Nations, also hopes to use this meeting to speak out to the world.
Qu Geping, a member of the Chinese delegation at the time and later the first director of the Environmental Protection Bureau, recalled that in the 1960s and 1970s, in people's minds, "socialism was not polluted", but the fact at that time was that the Guanting Reservoir, Baiyangdian and Guilin Li River had all been seriously polluted. Prior to this, he participated in the relevant work of the State Council, studying China's environmental risks at the request of Premier Zhou.
The Swedish newspaper I read at the time reported that in order to hold the congress, the Swedish government vacated both the old and new parliament buildings and provided delegates with a large number of bicycles to ride to the meeting. Environmentalists and organizations from all over the world are also setting up stalls there to promote their environmental concepts and technologies.
Because it was the peak of the Cold War at that time, all walks of life were "political commanders", the views were confrontational, tit-for-tat, and the debate was very fierce, and environmental protection became a topic of widespread concern in the world media for the first time in such a debate.
In his speech at the conference, the Chinese representative clearly stated China's position on environmental protection. Later, after discussion at the Conference, the Declaration adopted many views of the Chinese delegation, responded to the concerns of China and other developing countries, and even directly quoted Chairman Mao's quotations. For example: "Of all the things in the world, man is the first to be precious." Li Lailai, a former deputy director of the Stockholm Environment Institute, later said in an interview with chinadialogue that this was actually a reaction of the Chinese delegation to the argument in the draft declaration that "the rate of population growth is too rapid to cause poverty and environmental destruction.".
Chairman Mao's quotation quoted in the manifesto also reads, "Mankind must constantly sum up experience, make discoveries, invent something, create something, and make progress." "What we need is a warm and calm mood, a tense and orderly work."
Some of the expressions in the declaration also reflect China's views. For example, "in developing countries, environmental problems are largely due to underdevelopment";
As another example, the Declaration states that in developing countries "millions of people are still living far below the minimum level required for a decent life." They do not have access to adequate food and clothing, housing and education, health and sanitation. Developing countries must therefore commit themselves to development, bearing in mind their priorities and the need to protect and improve the environment. ”
Dr. Li Lailai, who has done research on the conference, said that before the opening of the conference, the Declaration on the Human Environment was basically finalized after consultation among various countries, and only one day of discussion time was left at the conference. Because China had not restored its legitimate seat in the United Nations before October 1971, it did not participate in the previous discussions. In this context, China offered to restart the discussion of the declaration, arguing that "this is a struggle between control and counter-control". But in the end, it was basically negotiated, but it was delayed for a few more days.
In 1973, China's first environmental protection conference was held in Beijing, which opened the prelude to China's environmental governance.
Why is the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Delgomer?
There are basically three reasons, one is that Swedes have a special affinity for nature, and most Swedes still spend their holidays not in tourist destinations, but in the mountains and forests or on islands far from the city for a few weeks.
There's an old Swedish saying that has long been seen as the motto of environmental policy: "We don't own a planet, we just borrow a planet from our children." ”
Many Swedes often boast that the national anthems of most countries in the world celebrate national independence and freedom, while Sweden's national anthem celebrates the beautiful land, which is enough to show the relationship between Swedes and nature.
Winter view of Queens Island in Stockholm. Ding Gang photographed
Second, in the early 1950s, the fisheries in Sweden and Norway experienced a decrease in production, and after investigation by scientists, it was found that the culprit was acid rain. Sweden became the first victim of industrial pollution on the european continent as factories on the European continent emitted large amounts of acid gas that drifted into northern Europe with high-altitude air currents, causing lakes to acidify and reduce fishery production. The Swedes realized that environmental protection was no longer a national problem that could be solved, and that a response from all over Europe and the world was needed. As a result, the Government of Sweden proposed to the United Nations to convene an environmental conference and also submitted a report on acid rain to the United Nations.
Third, then-Swedish Prime Minister Palmer viewed environmental protection as an important part of his foreign policy.
Palme was a very active international political activist who repeatedly criticized the U.S. policy of invading Vietnam and took to the streets with Nguyen Shou Zhen, the envoy of North Vietnam, to participate in anti-American demonstrations. Palme sees such a conference as an important opportunity to improve Sweden's national image, especially its influence in developing countries. He himself or his representatives travelled to various countries and persuaded many heads of State to enable them to support the convening of the Conference.
The Assembly finally adopted two documents, the Declaration on the Human Environment (also known as the Stockholm Declaration) and the Plan of Action for the Human Environment, and designated 5 June as World Environment Day, beginning the establishment of a system of pollution control with the participation of 110 countries around the world.
The biggest outcome of the conference was to identify for the first time the importance of environmental protection in the process of human development, which means the awakening of global environmental awareness. As Mr. Strong said in his opening remarks that year, Stockholm offers humanity a new goal – how we will manage the first wave of humanity's technological civilization shock.
After the meeting, the United Nations established UNEP to establish a global environmental control system, with Mr. Strong serving as its first Administrator. Promoted by UNEP and global environmentalists, the 1979 Environment Conference, 20 years later, the United Nations held a second related meeting in Brazil, renamed the Summit (also known as the Rio Earth Summit), with the participation of 117 heads of state around the world.
Since then, environmental issues have been closely linked to human civilization.
Today, when people around the world commemorate World Environmental Day in a variety of different ways, or revisit the history of human environmental protection, they naturally think of this conference and the swedes' emphasis on environmental protection.
Ding Gang is a senior researcher at The People's Congress of Chongyang