Question

What is meant by ‘Common but differentiated responsibilities’? How could we implement the idea?

Answer 1

Common but differentiated responsibili¬ties mean that the state shall cooperate in the spirit of global partnership to conserve, protect and restore the health and integrity of the earth’s ecosystem. As the states have common but differ¬entiated responsibilities over various contributions of global environmental degradation. The developed countries acknowledge that the responsibility that they bear in the international pursuit of sustainable development in view of the pressures their societies place on the global environment and of the tech-nological and financial resources they command.

We could implement the idea with the help of conventions and declarations:

1. The Rio-Summit held in June 1992 produced conventions dealing with climate change, biodiversity, forestry and recommended a list of developed practices called Agenda 21.
2. The 1992 United Nations Framework convention on climatic change (UNFCCC) also emphasised that the parties should act to protect the climate system on the basis of common but differentiated responsibilities;
3. An international agreement known Kyoto Protocol set targets for industrialised countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions which support for global warming.